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The Nigger of the Narcissus
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THE NIGGER
of
THE NARCISSUS
A TALE OF THE FORECASTLE
BY
JOSEPH CONRAD \
Th« Property of
Uolverdtv of Midu«an Leaimc libfar^
GAftDBK CiTT NbW YoMC
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CXJMPANY
1914
^
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r>^ y
■y
Copyright, 1897.
Bt Bachellxr Stmdicatb.
Under the title of The Nigger of the NardHOi.
Copyrighi, 1897.
Bt Dodd, Mead and Compaiit.
Under the title of The Children of the Sea.
Copyright, 1914.
Bt Dovblbdat, Paob ft Co.
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3--C.
Sii'So^-^'fl
TO MY READERS IN AMERICA
From that evening when James Wait joined the
ship — late for the muster of the crew — to the mo-
ment when he left us in the open sea, shrouded in
sailcloth, through the open port, I had much to do
with him. He was in my watch. A negro in a
British forecastle is a lonely being. He has no
chums. Yet James Wait afraid of death and making
her his accomplice was an imposter of some character
— mastering our compassion, scornful of our senti-
mentalism, triumphing over our suspicions.
But in the book he is nothing; he is merely the
centre of the ship's collective psychology and the
pivot of the action. Yet he who in the family circle
and amongst my friends is familiarly referred to as
the Nigger, remains very precious to me. For the
book written round him is not the sort of thing that
can be attempted more than once in a life-time. It
is the book by which; not as a novelist perhaps, but
as an artist striving for the utmost sincerity of ex-
pression, I am willing to stand or fall. Its pages
are the tribute of my unalterable and profound af-
fection for the ship, the seamen, the winds and the
great sea — the moulders of my youth, the compan-
ions of the best years of my life.
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vi TO MY READERS IN AMERICA
After writing the last words of that book, in the
revulsion of feeling before the accomplished task, I
understood that I had done with the sea, and that
henceforth I had to be a writer. And almost with-
out laying down the pen I wrote a preface, trying to
express the spirit in wMch I was entering on the task
of my new Ee. That preface on advice (which I
now thmk was wrong) was never published with the
book. But the late W. R Heidey, who had the
courage at that time (1897) to serialize my "Nigger '*
fa the New Review judged it worthy to be printed as
a» afterword at the end of the last mstalment of
tiietale.
I am glad that this book which means so much to
me is coming out again, under its proper title of
•The Nigger of the Nardssus" and under the aus-
pkes of my good fmnds and pubHshers Messrs.
Doubleday, Page & Co. mto the light of publicity.
Half the span of a generation has passed since W.
E. Heidey, after reacBng two chapters, sent me a
ytthsi message: *'Tell: Conrad that if the rest is up
tothesampleft shaU certainly come out in the New
Review.** The most gratHying recolfection of my
writer's fifef
And here is the Suppressed Preface.
X9U JOSEPH CONRAD.
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THE NIGGER OiF THE '^NARCISSUS**
PREFACE
A work that aspires, however humbly, to the con-
dition of art should carry its justification in every
line. And art itself may be defined as a single-
minded attempt to render the highest kind of justice
to the visible universe, by bringing to light the truth,
manifold and one, underlying its every aspect. It
is an attempt to find in its forms, in its colours, in its
l^ht, in its shadows, in the aspects of matter and in
the facts of life, what of each is fundamental, what
is enduring and essential — their one illuminating
and convincing quality — the very truth of their
existence. The artist, then, like the thinker or the
scientist, seeks the truth and makes his appeal.
Impressed by the aspect of the world the thinker
phmges into ideas, the raentist into facts — whence,
presently, emerging they make their appeal to those
qualities of our being that fit \is best for the hazard-
ous enterprise of living. They speak authorita-
tively to our common-sense, to our intelligence, to
our desire of peace or to our desire of unrest; not
seldom to our prejudices, sometimes to our fears,
often to our egoism — but always to our creduKty.
And their words are heard with reverence, for their
concern is with wdtg^ty matters; with the cuttiva-
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A* "^
viu PREFACE
tion of our minds 9,nd the proper care of our bodies:
with the attainment of our ambitions: with the per-
fection of the means and the glorification of our
precious aims.
It is otherwise with the artist.
Confronted by the same enigmatical spectacle
the artist descends within himself, and in that lonely
region of stress and strife, if he be deserving and f or-
timate, he finds the terms of his appeal. His appeal
is made to our less obvious capacities: to that part
of our nature which, because of the warlike condi-
tions of existence, is necessarily kept out of sight
within the more resisting and hard qualities — like
the vulnerable body within a steel armour. His
appeal is less loud, more profound, less distinct, more
stirring — and sooner forgotten. Yet its effect en-
dures forever. The changing wisdom of successive
generations discards ideas, questions facts, demol-
ishes theories. But the artist appeals to that part
of our being which is not dependent on wisdom; to
that in us which is a gift and not an acquisition —
and, therefore, more permanently enduring. He
speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to
the sense of mystery surrounding our lives: to our
sense of pity, and beauty, and pain: to the latent
feeling of fellowship with all creation — and to the
subtle but invincible, conviction of solidarity that
knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts
to the solidarity in dreams, in joy, in sorrow, in as-
pirationSi in illusions, in hope, in fear, which binds
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PREFACE ix
men to each other, which binds together all humanity
— the dead to the living and the living to the un-
born.
It is only some such train of thought, or rather of
feeling, that can in a measure explain the aim of the
attempt, made in the tale which follows, to present
an unrestful episode in the obscure lives of a few
individuals out of all the disregarded multitude of
the bewildered, the simple and the voiceless. For, if
there is any part of truth in the belief confessed
above, it becomes evident that there is not a place
of splendour pr a dark comer of the earth that does
not deserve, if only a passing glance of wonder and
pity. The motive, then, may be held to justify
the matter of the work; but this preface, which is
simply an avowal of endeavour, cannot end here —
for the avowal is not yet complete.
Fiction — if it at all aspires to be art — appeals
to temperament. And in truth it must be, like
painting, like music, like all art, the appeal of one
temperament to all the other innumerable tempera-
ments whose subtle and resistless power endows
passing events with their true meaning, and creates
the moral, the emotional atmosphere of the place and
time. Such an appeal to be elBEective must be an
impression conveyed through the senses; and, in
fact, it cannot be made in any other way, because
temperament, whether individual or collective, is
not amenable to persuasion. All art, therefore,
appeals primarily to the senses, and the artistic
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X PREFACE
aim when ex{nressing itself in written words must
also m&ke its appeal throu^ the senses, if its fai^
desire is to reach the secret spring of responsive
emotions. It must strenuously aspire to the plas-
ticity of sculpture, to the colour of painting, and to
the magic suggestiveness of music — which is the
art of arts. And it is only throu^ com^dete, un-
swerving devotion to the perfect blending of form
and substance; it is only throt^ an unremitting
never-discouraged care for the shape and ring of
sentences that an approach can be made to plas-
tidty, to colour; and the light of magic suggestive-
ness may be brought to play for an evanescent in-
stant over the commonplace surface of words: of
the old, old words, worn thin, defaced by ages of
careless usage.
The sincere endeavour to accomfdish that creative
ta^, to go as far on that road as his strength will
carry him, to go imdeterred by faltering, weariness
or reproach, is the only valid justification for the
worker in prose. And if his conscience is dear, his
answer to those who, in the fulness of a wisdom
whidi looks for immediate profit, demand specifi-
cally to be edified, consoled, amused; who dfmaaid
to be promptly improved, or encoun^ed, or f rip-
ened, or shocked, or charmed, must run thus: — My
task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power d
the written word, to make you hear, to make yoa
feel — it is, before all, to make you sec That —
andnom0re,anditiseverythix%. If I succeed, you
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PREFACE xi
shall find there aca»rding to your deserts: encour-
agement, consolation, fear, charm — all you demand
and, perhaps, also that glimpse ol truth for which
you have forgotten to ask.
To snatch in a mcHnent of courage, from the re-
morseless rush of time, a passing phase of life, is
cmly the beginning of the task. The task a{^roached
in tenderness and faith is to hold up unquestion-
ingly, without choice and without fear, the rescued
fragment before all eyes and in the light of a sincere
mood. It is to show its vibration, its colour, its form ;
and throi^its movement, its form, and its colour,
reveal the substance of its truth — disclose its in-
spiring secret: tt^ stress and passion within the core
of each convincing moment. In a single-minded
attempt of that kind, if one be deserving and iattur
nate, one may perchance attain to such clearness of
sincerity that at last the presented vision of regret
or pity, of terror or mirth, shall awaken in the hearts
of the beholders that feeling of unavoidable solidar-
ity ; ol the solidarity in mysterious origin, in toil, in
joy, in hope, in uncertain fate, which binds men to
each other and all mankind to the visible world.
It is evident that he who, rightly or wrongly,
holds by the convictions expressed above cannot be
faithful to any one of the temporary formulas of his
craft. The enduring part of them — the truth
which each (xoly in^>erfectly veils — dioukl abide
with him as the most precious of his possessions, but
they all: Realism, Romanticism, Naturalism, even
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xu PREFACE
the unofficial sentimentalism (which like the poor, is
exceedingly difficiQt to get rid of,) all these gods
must, after a short period of fellowship, abandon him
— even on the very threshold of the temple — to
the stammerings of his conscience and to the out-
spoken consciousness of the difficulties of his work.
In that uneasy solitude the supreme cry of Art for
Art, itself, loses the exciting ring of its apparent im-
morality. It soimds far off. It has ceased to be a
cry, and is heard only as a whisper, often incompre-
hensible, but at times and faintly encouraging.
Sometimes, stretched at ease in the shade of a road-
side tree, we watch the motions of a labourer in a dis-
tant field, and after a time, begin to wonder languidly
as to what the fellow may be at. We watdi the
movements of his body, the waving of his arms, we
see him bend down, stand up, hesitate, begin again.
It may add to the charm of an idle hour to be told
the purpose of his exertions. If we know he is try-
ing to IKt a stone, to dig a ditch, to uproot a stump,
we look with a more real interest at his efforts; we
are disposed to condone the jar of his agitation upon
the restfulness of the landscape; and even, if in a
brotherly frame of mind, we may bring ourselves to
forgive his failure. We imderstood his object, and,
after all, the fellow has tried, and perhaps he had
not the strength-— and perhaps he had not the knowl-
edge. We forgive, go on our way — and forget.
And so it is with the workman of art. Art is
long and life is short, and success is very far off.
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PREFACE xiii
And thus, doubtful of strength to travel so far, we
talk a little about the aim — the aim of art, which,
like life itself, is inspiring, difficult — obscured by
mists. It is not in tht clear logic of a triumphant
conclusion; it is not in the unveiling of one of those
heartless secrets which are called the Laws of Nature.
It is not less great, but only more difficult.
To arrest, for the space of a breath, the hands
busy about the work of the earth, and compel men
entranced by the sight of distant goals to glance for
a moment at the surrounding vision of form and col-
our, of sunshine and shadows; to make them pause
for a look, for a sigh, for a smile — such is the aim,
difficult and evanescent, and reserved only for a very
few to achieve. But sometimes, by the deserving
and the forttmate, even that task is accomplished.
And when it is accomplished — behold! — all the
truth of life is there: a moment of vision, a sigh, a
smile — and the return to an eternal rest.
From the New Review^ December, 1897.
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The Nigger of the Narcissus
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The Nigger of the Narcissus
Mr. Baker, chief mate of the ship " Narcissus,"
stepped in one stride out of his lighted cabin into
the darkness of the quarter-deck. Above his head,
on the break of the poop, the night-watchman rang
a double stroke. It was nine o'clock. Mr. Baker,
speaking up to the man above him, asked : " Are
all the hands aboard, Knowles ? "
The man limped down the ladder, then said
reflectively : *' I think so, sir. All our old chaps
are there, and a lot of new men has come. . . .
They must be all there."
" Tell the boatswain to send all hands aft," went
on Mr. Baker ; " and tell one of the youngsters
to bring a good lamp here. I want to muster our
crowd."
The main deck was dark aft, but half-way from
forward, through the open doors of the forecastle,
two streaks of brilliant light cut the shadow of the
quiet night that lay upon the ship. A hum of
voices was heard there, while port and starboard,
I
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2 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
in the illuminate3 doorways, silhouettes of moving
men appeared for a moment, very black, without
relief, like figures cut out of sheet tin. The ship
was ready for sea. The carpenter had driven in
the last wedge of the main-hatch battens, and,
throwing down his maul, had wiped his face with
great deliberation, just on the stroke of five. The
decks had been swept, the windlass oiled and made
ready to heave up the anchor; the big tow-rope
lay in long bights along one side of the main deck,
with one end carried up and hung over the bows,
in readiness for the tug that would come paddling
and hissing noisily, hot and smoky, in the limpid,
cool quietness of the early morning. The captain
was ashore,. where he had been engaging some new
hands to make up his full crew ; and, the work of
the day oVer, the ship's officers had kept out of the
way, glad of a little breathing-time. Soon after
dark the few liberty-men and the new hands began
to arrive in shore-boats rowed by white-clad Asiatics,
who clamoured fiercely for payment before com-
ing alongside the gangway-ladder. The feverish
and shrill babble of Eastern language struggled
against the masterful tones of tipsy seamen, who
argued against brazen claims and dishonest hopes
by profane shouts. The resplendent and bestarred
peace of the East was torn into squalid tatters by
howls of rage and shrieks of lament raised over
sums ranging from five annas to half a rupee ; and
every soul afloat in Bombay Harbour became
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 3
aware that the new hands were joining the
" Narcissus."
Gradually the distracting noise had subsided.
The boats came no longer in splashing clusters or
three or four together, but dropped alongside singly,
in a subdued buzz of expostulation cut short by
a ** Not a pice more ! You go to the devil ! "
from some man staggering up the accommodation-
ladder, — a dark figure, with a long bag poised on
the shoulder. In the forecastle the new-comers,
upright and swaying amongst corded boxes and
bundles of bedding, made friends with the old
hands, who sat one above another in the two tiers
of bunks, gazing at their future shipmates with
glances critical but friendly. The two forecastle
lamps were turned up high, and shed an intense
hard glare ; shore-going hard hats were pushed far
on the backs of heads, or rolled about on the deck
amongst the chain-cables^ white collars, undone,
stuck out on each side of red faces ; big arms in
white sleeves gesticulated j the growling voices
hummed steady amongst bursts of laughter and
hoarse calls. "Here, sonny, take that bunk!
. . . Don't you do it! . . . What's your last
ship ? . . . I know her. . . . Three years ago,
in Puget Sound. . . . This here berth leaks, I
tell you ! . . . Come on ; give us a chance to
swing that chest! . . . Did you bring a bottle,
any of you shore toffs? . . . Give us a bit of
'baccy. • • • I know herj her skipper drank
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4 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
himself to death. ... He was a dandy boy!
. . . Liked his lotion inside, he did ! . . .
No ! . . . Hold your row, you chaps ! . . . I
tell you, you came on board a hooker, where
they get their money's worth out of poor Jack,
by ! . . ."
A little fellow, called Craik and nicknamed Bel-
fast, abused the ship violently, romancing on prin-
ciple, just to give the new hands something to
think over. Archie, sitting aslant on his sea-chest,
kept his knees out of the way, and pushed the
needle steadily through a white patch in a pair of
blue trousers. Men in black jackets and stand-up
collars, mixed with men barefooted, bare-armed,
with coloured shirts open on haiiy chests, pushed
against one another in the middle of the forecastle.
The group swayed, reeled, turning upon itself with
the motion of a scrimmage, in a haze of tobacco
smoke. All were speaking together, swearing at
every second word. A Russian Finn, wearing a
yellow shirt with pink stripes, stared upwards,
dreamy-eyed, from under a mop of tumbled hair.
Two young giants with smooth, baby faces — two
Scandinavians — helped each other to spread their
bedding, silent, and smiling placidly at the tempest
of good-humoured and meaningless curses. Old
Singleton, the oldest able seaman in the ship, sat
apart on the deck right under the lamps, stripped to
the waist, tattooed like a cannibal chief all over his
powerful chest and enormous biceps. Between the
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 5
blue and red patterns his white skin gleamed like
satin; his bare back was propped against the heel
of the bowsprit, and he held a book at arm's length
before his big, sunburnt face. With his spectacles
and a venerable white beard, he resembled a learned
and savage patriarch, the incarnation of barbarian
wisdom serene in the blasphemous turmoil of the
world. He was intensely absorbed, and, as he
turned the pages, an expression of grave surprise
would pass over his rugged features. He was read-
ing *' Pelham." The popularity of Bulwer Lytton
in the forecastles of Southern-going ships is a won-
derful and bizarre phenomenon. What ideas do
his polished and so curiously insincere sentences
awaken in the simple minds of the big children who
people those dark and wandering places of the
earth ? What meaning their rough, inexperienced
souls can find in the elegant verbiage of his pages ?
What excitement ? — what forgetfulness ? — what
appeasement ? Mystery ! Is it the fascination of
the incomprehensible ? — is it the charm of the
impossible ? Or are those beings who exist beyond
the pale of life stirred by his tales as by an
enigmatical disclosure of a resplendent world that
exists within the frontier of infamy and filth, within
that border of dirt and hunger, of misery and dissi-
pation, that comes down on all sides to the water's
edge of the incorruptible ocean, and is the only
thing they know of life, the only thing they see of
surrounding land, — those life-long prisoners of the
lea ? Mystetv *
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6 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
Singleton, who had sailed to the southward
since the age of twelve, who in the last forty-five
years had lived (as we had calculated from his
papers) no more than forty months ashore — old
Singleton, who boasted, with the mild composure
of long years well spent, that generally from the
day he was paid off from one ship till the day he
shipped in another he seldom was in a condition
to distinguish daylight — old Singleton sat un-
moved in the clash of voices and cries, spelling
through " Pelham " with slow labour, and lost in
an absorption profound enough to resemble a
trance. He breathed regularly. Every time he
turned the book in his enormous and blackened
hands the muscles of his big white arms rolled
slightly under the smooth skin. Hidden by the
white moustache, his lips, stained with tobacco-
juice that trickled down the long beard, moved in
inward whisper. His bleared eyes gazed fixedly
from behind the glitter of black-rinimed glasses.
Opposite to him, and on a level with his face, the
ship's cat sat on the barrel of the windlass in the
pose of a crouching chimera, blinking its green
eyes at its old friend. It seemed to meditate a
leap on to the old man's lap over the bent back of
the ordinary seaman who sat at Singleton's feet.
Young Charley was lean and long-necked. The
ridge of his backbone made a chain of small hills
under the old shirt. His face of a street-boy —
a face precocious, sagacious, and ironic, with deep
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 7
downward folds on each side of the thin, wide
mouth — hung low over his bony knees. He
was learning to make a lanyard knot with a bit
of an old rope. Small drops of perspiration stood
out on his bulging forehead ; he sniffed strongly
from time to time, glancing out of the corners of
his restless eyes at the old seaman, who took no
notice of the puzzled youngster muttering at his
work.
The noise increased. Little Belfast seemed, in
the heavy heat of the forecastle, to boil with
facetious fury. His eyes danced; in the crim-
son of his face, comical as a mask, the mouth
yawned black, with strange grimaces. Facing
him, a half-undressed man held his sides, and,
throwing his head back, laughed with wet eye-
lashes. Others stared with amazed eyes. Men
sitting doubled up in the upper bunks smoked
short pipes, swinging bare brown feet above the
heads of those who, sprawling below on sea-chests,
listened, smiling stupidly or scornfully. Over the
white rims of berths stuck out heads with blink-
ing eyes ; but the bodies were lost in the gloom
of those places, that resembled narrow niches for
coffins in a whitewashed and lighted mortuary.
Voices buzzed louder. Archie, with compressed
lips, drew himself in, seemed to shrink into a
smaller space, and sewed steadily, industrious and
dumb. Belfast shrieked like an inspired Dervish ;
"... So I seez to him, boys, seez I, * Beg-
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8 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
gin' yer pardon, sorr,' seez I to that second mate
of that steamer — * beggin' your-r-r pardon, sorr,
the Board of Trade must 'ave been drunk when
they granted you your certificate ! ' ' What do
you say, you ! ' seez he, comin' at me like a
mad bull ... all in his white clothes ; and I
up with my tar-pot and capsizes it all over his
blamed lovely face and his lovely jacket. . . .
* Take that ! ' seez I. ^ I am a sailor, anyhow,
you nosing, skipper-licking, useless, sooperfloos
bridge-stanchion, you ! ' * That 's the kind of
man I am ! ' shouts I. . . . You should have seed
him skip, boys ! Drowned, blind with tar, he
was ! So ... "
" Don't 'ee believe him ! He never upset no
tar ; I was there ! " shouted somebody. The two
Norwegians sat on a chest side by side, alike and
placid, resembling a pair of love-birds on a perch,
and with round eyes stared innocently; but the
Russian Finn, in the racket of explosive shouts
and rolling laughter, remained motionless, limp,
and dull, like a deaf man without a backbone.
Near him Archie smiled at his needle. A broad-
chested, slow-eyed new-comer spoke deliberately
to Belfast during an exhausted lull in the noise:
** I wonder any of the mates here are alive yet
with such a chap as you on board ! I concloode
they ain't that bad now, if you had the taming
of them, sonny,"
"Not bad! Not bad!" screamed Belfast
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 9
" If it was n't for us sticking together. • • .
Not bad ! They ain't never bad when they ain't
got a chawnce, blast their black 'arts. . . ." He
foamed, whirling his arms, then suddenly grinned
and, taking a tablet of black tobacco out of his
pocket, bit a piece off with a funny show of
ferocity. Another new hand — a man with shifty
eyes and a yellow hatchet face, who had been
listening open-mouthed in the shadow of the
midship locker — observed in a squeaky voice :
"Well, it's a 'omeward trip, anyhow. Bad or
good, I can do it hall on my 'ed — s' long as I get
'ome. And I can look after my rights ! I will
show 'em ! " All the heads turned towards him.
Only the ordinary seaman and the cat took no
notice. He stood with arms akimbo, a little
fellow with white eyelashes. He looked as if he
had known all the degradations and all the furies.
He looked as if he had been cuffed, kicked, rolled
in the mud ; he looked as if he had been scratched,
spat upon, pelted with unmentionable filth . . .
and he smiled with a sense of security at the faces
around. His ears were bending down under the
weight of his battered hard hat. The torn tails
of his black coat flapped in fringes about the
calves of his legs. He unbuttoned the only two
buttons that remained and every one saw he had
no shirt under it. It was his deserved misfortune
that those rags which nobody could possibly be
supposed to own looked on him as if they had
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10 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
been stolen. His neck was bng and thin; his
eyelids were red ; rare hairs hung about his jaws ;
his shoulders were peaked and drooped like the
broken wings of a bird ; all his left side was caked
with mud which showed that he had lately slept
in a wet ditch. He had saved his inefficient car-
cass from violent destruction by running away
from an American ship, where, in a moment of
forgetful folly, he had dared to engage himself;
and he had knocked about for a fortnight ashore
in the native quarter, cadging for drinks, starving,
sleeping on rubbish-heaps, wandering in sunshine :
a startling visitor from a world of nightmares. He
stood repulsive and smiling in the sudden silence.
This clean white forecastle was his refuge; the
place where he could be lazy ; where he could
wallow, and lie and eat — and curse the food he
ate; where he could display his talents for shirk-
ing work, for cheating, for cadging; where he
could find surely some one to wheedle and some
one to bully — and where he would be paid for
doing all this. They all knew him. Is there a
spot on earth where such a man is unknown, an
ominous survival testifying to the eternal fitness
of lies and impudence? A taciturn long-armed
shell-back, with hooked fingers, who had been
lying on his back smoking, turned in his bed to
examine him dispassionately, then, over his head,
sent a long jet of clear saliva towards the door.
They all knew him ! He was the man that can-
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA ii
not steer, that cannot splice, that dodges the work
on dark nights; that, aloft, holds on frantically
with both arms and legs, and swears at the wind,
the sleet, the darkness ; the man who curses the
sea while others work. The man who is the
last out and the first in when all hands are called.
The man who can't do mosf things and won't do
the rest. The pet of philanthropists and self-
seeking landlubbers. The sympathetic and de-
serving creature that knows all about his rights,
but knows nothing of courage, of endurance, and
of the unexpressed faith, of the unspoken loyalty
that knits together a ship's company. The inde-
pendent offspring of the ignoble freedom of the
slums full of disdain and hate for the austere
servitude of the sea.
Some one cried at him : " What 's your
name ? " — '' Donkin," he said, looking round
with cheerful effrontery. — " What are you ? " asked
another voice. — "Why, a sailor like you, old
man," he replied in a tone that meant to be hearty
but was impudent. — " Blamme if you don't look a
blamed sight worse than a broken-down fireman,"
was the comment in a convinced mutter. Charley
lifted his head and piped in a cheeky voice : " He is a
man and a sailor," — then wiping his nose with the
back of his hand bent down industriously over his
bit of rope. A few laughed. Others stared doubt-
fully. The ragged new-comer was indignant.
** That's a fine way to welcome a chap into a
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12 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
fo'c'sle/' he snarled. " Are you men or a lot of
'artless cannybals ? " — " Don't take your shirt off
for a word, shipmate/' called out Belfast, jumping
up in front, fiery, menacing, and friendly at the
same time. — *'Is that 'ere bloke blind?" aske<^
the indomitable scarecrow, looking right and left
with affected surprise. " Can't 'ee see I 'ave n't
got no shirt ? "
He held both his arms out crosswise and shook
the rags that hung over his bones with dramatic
effect.
" 'Cos why ? " he continued very loud. '' The
bloody Yankees been tryin' to jump my guts hout
'cos I stood up for my rights like a good 'un. I ham
a Henglishman, I ham. They set upon me an' I
'ad to run. That's why. A'n't yer never seed a
man 'ard up ? Yah ! What kind of blamed ship is
this? I'm dead broke. I 'ave n't got nothink.
No bag, no bed, no blanket, no shirt — not a
bloomin' rag but what I stand in. But I 'ad the
'art to stand hup ag'in' them Yankees. 'As any
of you 'art enough to spare a pair of old pants for
a chum ? "
He knew how to conquer the naive instincts of
that crowd. In a moment they gave him their
compassion, jocularly, contemptuously, or surlily ;
and at first it took the shape of a blanket thrown at
him as he stood there with the white skin of his
limbs showing his human kinship through the black
fantasy of his rags. Then a pair of old shoes fell
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 13
at his muddy feet. With a cry, " From under,"
a rolled-up pair of trousers, heavy with tar stains,
struck him on the shoulder. The gust of their
benevolence sent a wave of sentimental pity through
their doubting hearts. They were touched by their
own readiness to alleviate a shipmate's misery.
Voices cried: "We will fit you out, old man."
Murmurs : " Never seed seech a hard case. . . .
Poor beggar. . • . I've got an old singlet. . . .
Will that be of any use to you ? . . . Take it,
matey. . . ." Those friendly murmurs filled the
forecastle. He pawed around with his naked foot,
gathering the things in a heap, and looked about
for more. Unemotional Archie perfunctorily con-
tributed to the pile an old cloth cap with the peak
torn off. Old Singleton, lost in the serene regions
of fiction, read on unheeding. Charley, pitiless with
the wisdom of youth, squeaked : " If you want
brass buttons for your new unyforms, I 've got two
for you." The filthy object of universal charity
shook his fist at the youngster. " I '11 make you
keep this 'ere fo'c'sle clean, young feller," he snarled
viciously. " Never you fear. I will learn you to
be civil to an able seaman, you hignorant hass."
He glared harmfully, but saw Singleton shut his
book, and his little beady eyes began to roam from
berth to berth. "Take that bunk by the door
there — it's pretty fair," suggested Belfast. So
advised, he gathered the gifts at his feet, pressed
them in a bundle against his breast, then looked
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14 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
cautiously at the Russian Finn, who stood on one
side with an unconscious gaze, contemplating, per-
haps, one of those weird visions that haunt the men
of his race. " Get out of my road, Dutchy," said
the victim of Yankee brutality. The Finn did
not move — did not hear. "Get out, blast ye,"
shouted the other, shoving him aside with his
elbow. "Get out, you blanked deaf and dumb
fool. Get out." The man staggered, recovered
himself, and gazed at the speaker in silence.
" Those damned furriners should be kept hunder,"
opined the amiable Donkin to the forecastle. " If
you don't teach 'em their place, they put on you
like hanythink." He flung all his worldly posses-
sions into the empty bed-place, gauged with another
shrewd look the risks of the proceeding, then
leaped up to the Finn, who stood pensive and dull.
" I '11 teach you to swell around," he yelled. " I '11
plug your eyes for you, you blooming square-head.'^
Most of the men were now in their bunks, and the
two had the forecastle clear to themselves. The
development of the destitute Donkin aroused
interest. He danced all in tatters before the
amazed Finn, squaring from a distance at the
heavy, unmoved face. One or two men cried
encouragingly : " Go it, Whitechapel ! " settling
themselves luxuriously in their beds to survey the
fight. Others shouted: "Shut yer row! . . .
Go an' put yer 'ed in a bag ! . . ." The hubbub
was recommencing. Suddenly many heavy blows
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 15
struck with a handspike on the deck above boomed
like discharges of small cannon through the fore-
castle. Then the boatswain's voice rose outside
the door with an authoritative note in its drawl :
" D' ye hear, below there ? Lay aft ! Lay aft to
muster all hands ! "
There was a moment of surprised stillness.
Then the forecastle floor disappeared under men
whose bare feet flopped on the planks as they
sprang clear out of their berths. Caps were rooted
for amongst tumbled blankets. Some, yawning,
buttoned waistbands. Half-smoked pipes were
knocked hurriedly against woodwork and stuffed
under pillows. Voices growled : " What 's up ?
... Is there no rest for us ? " Donkin yelped :
"If that's the way of this ship, we'll 'ave to
change hall that. . . . You leave me alone. . . .
I will soon . . ." None of the crowd noticed
him. They were lurching in twos and threes
through the doors, after the manner of merchant
Jacks who cannot go out of a door fairly, like mere
landsmen. The votary of change followed them.
Singleton, struggling into his jacket, came last, tall
and fatherly, bearing high his head of a weather-
beaten sage on the body of an old athlete. Only
Charley remained alone in the white glare of the
empty place, sitting between the two rows of iron
links that stretched into the narrow gloom forward.
He pulled hard at the strands in a hurried endeavour
to finish his knot. Suddenly he started up, flung
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i6 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
the rope at the cat, and skipped after the black
torn that went ofF leaping sedately over chain com*
pressors, with the tail carried stiff and upright,
like a small flag-pole.
Outside the glare of the steaming forecastle the
serene purity of the night enveloped the seamen
with its soothing breath, with its tepid breath flow-
ing under the stars that hung countless above the
mastheads in a thin cloud of luminous dust. On
the town side the blackness of the water was
streaked with trails of light which undulated gently
on slight ripples, similar to filaments that float
rooted to the shore. Rows of other lights stood
away in straight lines as if drawn up on parade
between towering buildings ; but on the other side
of the harbour sombre hills arched high their
black spines on which, here and there, the point of
a star resembled a spark fallen from the sky. Far
off, BycuUa way, the electric lamps at the dock
gates shone on the end of lofty standards with a
glow blinding and frigid like captive ghosts of
some evil moons. Scattered all over the dark
polish of the roadstead, the ships at anchor floated
in perfect stillness under the feeble gleam of their
riding-lights, looming up, opaque and bulky, like
strange and monumental structures abandoned by
men to an everlasting repose.
Before the cabin door Mr, Baker was mustering
the crew. As they stumbled and lurched along
past the mainmast, they could see aft his round.
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 17
broad hce with a white paper before it, and beside
his shoulder the sleepy bead^ with dropped eyelids,
of the boy, who held, suspended at the end of his
raised arm, the luminous globe of a lamp. Even
before the shuffle of naked soles had ceased along
the decks, the mate began to call over the names.
He called distinctly in a serious tone befitting this
roll-call to unquiet loneliness, to inglorious and
obscure struggle, or to the more trying endurance
of small privations and wearisome duties. As the
chief mate read out a name, one of the men
would answer : " Yes, sir ! " or " Here ! " and,
detaching himself from the shadowy mob of heads
visible above the blackness of staiboard bulwarks,
would step barefooted into the circle of light, and
in two noiseless strides pass into the shadows on
the port side of the quarter-deck. They answered
in divers tones : in thick mutters ; in clear, ringing
voices ; and some, as if the whole thing had been
an outrage on their feelings, used an injured into-
nation : for discipline is not ceremonious in mer-
chant ships, where the sense of hierarchy is weak,
and where all feel themselves equal before the
unconcerned immensity of the sea and the exact-
ing appeal of the work.
Mr. Baker read on steadily : ^^ Hanssen — r Camp-
bell — Smith — Wamibo. Now, then, Wamibo.
Why don't you answer ? Always got to call your
name twice." The Finn emitted at last an un-
couth grunt, and, stepping out, passed through the
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i8 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
patch of light, weird and gaudy, with the face of a
man marching through a dream. The mate went
on faster : " Craik — Singleton — Donkin. . . .
O Lord ! " he involuntarily ejaculated as the incred-
ibly dilapidated figure appeared in the light. It
stopped ; it uncovered pale gums and long, upper
teeth in a malevolent grin. " Is there anythink
wrong with me. Mister Mate ? " it asked, with a
flavour of insolence in the forced simplicity of its
tone. On both sides of the deck subdued titters
were heard. " That '11 do. Go over," growled
Mr. Baker, fixing the new hand with steady blue
eyes. And Donkin vanished suddenly out of the
light into the dark group of mustered men, to be
slapped on the back and to hear flattering whispers.
Round him men muttered to one another : " He
ain't afeard, he'll give sport to 'em, see if he
don't. . . . Reg'lar Punch and Judy show. • . .
Did ye see the mate start at him ? . • . Well !
Damme, if I ever ! . . . "
The last man had gone over, and there was a
moment of silence while the mate peered at his
list. '' Sixteen, seventeen," he muttered. " I am
one hand short, bo' sen," he said aloud. The big
west-countryman at his elbow, swarthy and bearded
like a gigantic Spaniard, said in a rumbling bass :
" There 's no one left forward, sir. I had a look
round. He ain't aboard, but he may turn up be-
fore daylight." — "Ay. He may or he may not,"
commented the mate ; " can't make out that last
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA ig
name. It's all a smudge. . . . That will do,
men. Go below."
The indistinct and motionless group stirred,
broke up, began to move forward.
" Wait ! " cried a deep, ringing voice.
All stood still. Mr. Baker, who had turned
away yawning, spun round open-mouthed. At
last, furious, he blurted out: "What's this?
Who said 'Wait'? What ..."
But he saw a tall figure standing on the rail.
It came down and pushed through the crowd,
marching with a heavy tread towards the light on
the quarter-deck. Then again the sonorous voice
said with insistence : " Wait ! " The lamplight
lit up the man's body. He was tall. His heac
was away up in the shadows of lifeboats that stood
on skids above the deck. The whites of his eyes
and his teeth gleamed distinctly, but the face was
indistinguishable. His hands were big and seemed
gloved.
Mr. Baker advanced intrepidly. " Who are
you ? How dare you •. . . " he began.
The boy, amazed like the rest, raised the light to
the man's face. It was black. A surprised hum —
a faint hum that sounded like the suppressed mutter
of the word " Nigger " — ran along the deck and
escaped out i^to the night. The nigger seemed
not to hear. He balanced himself where he stood
in a swagger that marked time. After a moment
be said calmly : *' My name is Wait — James Wait."
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w THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
" Oh ! " said Mr. Baker. Then, after a few
seconds of smouldering silence, his temper blazed
out, " Ah ! Your name is Wait. What of that ?
What do you want ? What do you mean, coming
shouting here ? "
The nigger was calm, cool, towering, superb.
The men had approached and stood behind him in
a body. He overtopped the tallest by half a head.
He said : " I belong to the ship." He enunciated
distinctly, with soft precision. The deep, rolling
tones of his voice filled the deck without effort.
He was naturally scornful, unaffectedly conde-
scending, as if from his height of six foot three he
had surveyed all the vastness of human folly and
had made up his mind not to be too hard on it.
He went on : " The captain shipped me this
morning. I could n't get aboard sooner. I saw
you all aft as I came up the ladder, and could see
directly you were mustering the crew. Naturally
I called out my name. I thought you had it on
your list, and would understand. You misappre-
hended." He stopped short. The folly around
him was confounded. He was right as ever, and
as ever ready to forgive. The disdainful tones had
ceased, and, breathing heavily, he stood still, sur-
rounded by all these white men. He held his head
up in the glare of the lamp — a head vigorously
modelled into deep shadows and shining lights —
a head powerful and misshapen with a tormented
and flattened face — a face pathetic and brutal:
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 21
the tragic, the mysterious, the repulsive mask of a
nigger's soul.
Mr. Baker, recovering his composure, looked at
the paper close. " Oh, yes ; that 's so. All right.
Wait. Take your gear forward," he said.
Suddenly the nigger's eyes rolled wildly, became
all whites. He put his hand to his side and
coughed twice, a cough metallic, hollow, and tre-
mendously loud ; it resounded like two explosions
in a vault ; the dome of the sky rang to it, and the
iron plates of the ship's bulwarks seemed to vibrate
in unison ; then he marched off forward with the
others. The officers lingering by the cabin door
could hear him say : " Won't some of you chaps
lend a hand with my dunnage ? I 've got a chest
and a bag." The words spoken sonorously, with
an even intonation, were heard all over the ship j
and the question was put in a manner that made
refusal impossible. The short, quick shuffle of
men carrying something heavy went away forward,
but the tall figure of the nigger lingered by the
main hatch in a knot of smaller shapes. Again he
was heard asking : ^^ Is your cook a coloured
gentleman ? " Then a disappointed and disap-
proving " Ah ! h'm ! " was his comment upon the
information that the cook happened to be a mere
white man. Yet, as they went all together towards
the forecastle, he condescended to put his head
through the galley door and boom out inside a
magnificent " Good evening, doctor ! " that made
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22 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
all the saucepans ring. In the dim h'ght the cook
dozed on the coal locker in front of the captain's
supper. He jumped up as if he had been cut with
a whip, and dashed wildly on deck to see the backs
of several men going away laughing. Afterwards,
when talking about that voyage, he used to say :
"The poor fellow had scared me. I thought I
had seen the devil." The cook had been seven
years in the ship with the same captain. He was
a serious-minded man with a wife and three chil-
dren, whose society he enjoyed on an average one
month out of twelve. When on shore he took his
family to church twice every Sunday. At sea he
went to sleep every evening with his lamp turned
up full, a pipe in his mouth, and an open Bible in
his hand. Some one had always to go during the
night to put out the light, take the book from his
hand, and the pipe from between his teeth. '' For,"
Belfast used to say, irritated and complaining, " some
night, you stupid cookie, you '11 swallow your ould
clay, and we will have no cook." — " Ah ! sonny,
I am ready for my Maker's call . . . wish you all
were," the other would answer with a benign seren-
ity that was altogether imbecile and touching.
Belfast, outside the galley door, danced with vexa-
tion. " You holy fool ! I don't want you to
die," he howled, looking up with furious, quivering
face and tender eyes. " What 's the hurry ? you
blessed wooden-headed ould heretic, the divvle will
have you soon enough. Think of Us ... of
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 23
Us ... of Us ! " And he would go away, stamp-
ing, spitting aside, disgusted and worried ; while
the other, stepping out, saucepan in hand, hot,
begrimed, and placid, watched with a superior,
cocksure smile the back of his " queer little man "
reeling in a rage. They were great friends.
Mr. Baker, lounging over the after-hatch, sniffed
the humid night in the company of the second mate.
" Those West India niggers run fine and large —
some of them. • . . Ough ! . . . Don't they ? A
fine, big man that, Mr. Creighton. Feel him on a
rope. Hey ? Ough ! I will take him into my
watch, I think." The second mate, a fair, gentle-
manly young fellow, with a resolute face and a
splendid physique, observed quietly that it was just
about what he expected. There could be felt in
his tone some slight bitterness which Mr. Baker
very kindly set himself to argue away. " Come,
come, young man," he said, grunting between the
words. " Come ! Don't be too greedy. You
had that big Finn in your watch all the voyage. I
will do what 's fair. You may have those two
young Scandinavians and I . . . Ough ! . . . I
get the nigger, and will take that . . . Ough !
that cheeky costermonger chap in a black frock-
coat. I '11 make him . . . Ough ! . . . make
him toe the mark, or my . . . Ough ! . . . name
is n't Baker. Ough ! Ough ! Ough ! "
He grunted thrice — ferociously. He had that
trick of grunting so between his words and at the
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24 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
end of sentences. It was a fine, effective grunt
that went well with his menacing uttetance ; with
his heavy, bull-necked frame; his jerky, rolling gait;
with his big, seamed fece, his steady eyes, and sar-
donic mouth. But its effect had been long ago
discounted by the men. They liked him ; Belfast
— who was a favourite, and knew it — mimicked
him, not quite behind his back. Charley — but
with greater caution — imitated his walk. Some
of his sayings became established, daily quotations
in the forecastle. Popularity can go no farther !
Besides, all hands were ready to admit that on a
fitting occasion the mate could "jump down a fel-
low's throat in a reg'lar Western Ocean style.*'
Now he was giving his last orders. " Ough !
. . . You, Knowles ! Call all hands at four. I
want . . . Ough ! ... to heave short before the
tug comes. Look out for the captain. I am
going to lay down in my clothes. . . . Ough !
• . . Call me when you see the boat coming.
Ough ! Ough ! . . . The old man is sure to
have something to say when he comes aboard,"
he remarked to Creighton. "Well, good-night.
• • . Ough ! A long day before us to-morrow.
. . . Ough ! . . . Better turn in now. Ough I
Ough ! "
Upon the dark deck a band of light flashed, then
a door slammed, and Mr. Baker was gone into his
neat cabin. Young Creighton stood leaning over
the rail, and looked dreamily into the night of the
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 25
east. And he saw in it a long country lane, a lane
of waving leaves and dancing sunshine. He saw
stirring boughs of old trees outspread, and framing
in their arch the tender, the caressing blueness of
an English sky. And through the arch a girl in a
clear dress, smiling under a sunshade, seemed to be
stepping out of the tender sky.
At the other end of the ship the forecastle, with
only one lamp burning now, was going to sleep in
a dim emptiness traversed by loud breathings, by
sudden short sighs. The double row of berths
yawned black, like graves tenanted by uneasy
corpses. Here and there a curtain of gaudy chintz,
half drawn, marked the resting-place of a sybarite.
A leg hung over the edge very white and lifeless.
An arm stuck straight out with a dark palm turned
up, and thick fingers half closed. Two light snores,
that did not synchronise, quarrelled in funny dia-
logue. Singleton stripped again — the old man
suffered much from prickly heat — stood cooling
his back in the doorway, with his arms crossed on
his bare and adorned chest. His head touched the
beam of the deck above. The nigger, half un«
dressed, was busy casting adrift the lashing of his
box, and spreading his bedding in an upper berth.
He moved about in his socks, tall and noiseless,
with a pair of braces beating about his heels.
Amongst the shadows of stanchions and bowsprit,
Donkin munched a piece of hard ship's bread, sit-
ting on the deck with upturned feet and restless
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26 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
eyes ; he held the biscuit up before his mouth in
the whole fist, and snapped his jaws at it with a
raging face. Crumbs fell between his outspread
legs. Then he got up.
" Where 's our water-cask ? " he asked in a
contained voice.
Singleton, without a word, pointed with a big
hand that held a short smouldering pipe. Donkin
bent over the cask, drank out of the tin, splashing
the water, turned round and noticed the nigger
looking at him over the shoulder with calm lofti-
ness. He moved up sideways.
"There's a blooming supper for a man," he
whispered bitterly. " My dorg at 'ome would n't
'ave it. It 's fit enouf for you an' me. 'Ere 's a
big ship's fo'c'sle ! . . . Not a blooming scrap
of meat in the kids. I 've looked in all thf
lockers. . . ."
The nigger stared like a man addressed unex-
pectedly in a foreign language. Donkin changed
his tone : " Giv' us a bit of 'baccy, mate," he
breathed out confidentially; "I 'ave n't 'ad smoke
or chew for the last month. I am rampin' mad
for it. Come on, old man ! "
" Don't be familiar," said the nigger. Donkin
started and sat down on a chest near by, out
of sheer surprise. " We have n't kept pigs to-
gether," continued James Wait in a deep under-
tone. " Here 's your tobacco." Then, after a
pause, he asked: "What ship?" — "'Golden
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 27
State/" muttered Donkin indistinctly, biting the
tobacco. The nigger whistled low. " Ran ? " he
said curtly. Donkin nodded: one of his cheeks
bulged out. '' In course I ran," he mumbled.
" They booted the life hout of one Dago chap on
the passage 'ere, then started on me. I cleared hout
'ere." — " Left your dunnage behind ? " — " Yes,
dunnage and money," answered Donkin, raising
his voice a little; "I got nothink. No clothes,
no bed. A bandy-legged little Hirish chap 'ere
'as give me a blanket. . . . Think I '11 go an*
sleep in the fore topmast staysail to-night."
He went on deck, trailing behind his back a
corner of the blanket. Singleton, without a glance,
moved slightly aside to let him pass. The nigger
put away his shore togs and sat in clean working
clothes on his box, one arm stretched over his
knees. After staring at Singleton for some time
he asked without emphasis : " What kind of
ship is this ? Pretty fair ? Eh ? "
Singleton did n't stir. A long while after he
said, with unmoved face : ^^ Ship ! • • • Ships are
all right. It is the men in them ! "
He went on smoking in the profound silence.
The wisdom of half a century spent in listening
to the thunder of the waves had spoken uncon-
sciously through his old lips. The cat purred on
the windlass. Then James Wait had a fit of
roaring, rattling cough, that shook him, tossed
him like a hurricane, and flung him panting with
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28 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
staring eyes headlong on his sea-chest. Several
men woke up. One said sleepily out of his bunk:
*' 'Struth ! what a blamed row ! " — ''I have a
cold on my chest," gasped Wait. — " Cold ! you
call it," grumbled the man; ^* should think 'twas
something more. ..." — " Oh ! you think so,"
said the nigger, upright and loftily scornful again.
He climbed into his berth and began coughing per-
sistently while he put his head out to glare all
round the forecastle. There was no further pro-
test. He fell back on the pillow, and could be
heard there wheezing regularly like a man op-
pressed in his sleep.
Singleton stood at the door with his face to the
light and his back to the darkness^ And alone in
the dim emptiness of the sleeping forecastle he
appeared bigger, colossal, very old ; old as Father
Time himself, who should have come there into
this place as quiet as a sepulchre to contemplate
with patient eyes the short victory of sleep, the
consoler. Yet he was only a child of time, a
lonely relic of a devoured and forgotten generation.
He stood, still strong, as ever unthinking ; a ready
man with a vast empty past and with no future,
with his childlike impulses and his man's passioni
already dead within his tattooed breast. The men
who could understand his silence were gone —
those men who knew how to exist be3rond the
pale of life and within sight of eternity. They
bad been strong, as those are strong who know
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA ag
neither doubts nor hopes. They had been im-
patient and enduring, turbulent and devoted, un-
ruly and faithful. Well-meaning peqple had tried
to represent those men as whining over every
mouthful of their food ; as going about their work
in fear of their lives. But in truth they had been
men who knew toil, privation, violence, debauchery
— but knew not fear, and had no desire of spite
in their hearts. Men hard to manage, but easy to
inspire ; voiceless men — but men enough to scorn
in their hearts the sentimental voices that bewailed
the hardness of their &te. It was a fate unique
and their own ; the capacity to bear it appeared to
them the privilege of the chosen ! Their genera-
tion lived inarticulate and indispensable, without
knowing the sweetness of affections or the refuge
of a home — and died free from the dark menace
of a narrow grave. They were the everlasting
children of the mysterious sea. Their successors
are the grown-up children of a discontented earth.
They are less naughty, but less innocent i less
profane, but perhaps also less believing ; and if
they have learned how to speak, they have also
learned how to whine. But the others were strong
and mute ; they were effaced, bowed and enduring,
like stone caryatides that hold up in the night the
lighted halls of a resplendent and glorious edifice.
They are gone now — and it does not matter.
The sea and the earth are unfaithful to their chil-
dren : a truth, a faith, a generation of men goes— ^
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30 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
and is forgotten, and it does not matter ! Except,
perhaps, to the few of those who believed the truth,
confessed the faith — or loved the men.
A breeze was coming. The ship that had been
lying tide-rode swung to a heavier pufFj and sud-
denly the slack of the chain cable between the
windlass and the hawse-pipe clinked, slipped for-
ward an inch, and rose gently ofF the deck with a
startling suggestion as of unsuspected life that had
been lurking stealthily in the iron. In the hawse-
pipe the grinding links sent through the ship a
sound like a low groan of a man sighing under a
burden. The strain came on the windlass, the
chain tautened like a string, vibrated — and the
handle of the screw-brake moved in slight jerks.
Singleton stepped forward.
Till then he had been standing meditative and
unthinking, reposeful and hopeless, with a face grim
and blank — a sixty-year-old child of the mysterious
sea. The thoughts of all his lifetime could have
been expressed in six words, but the stir of those
things that were as much part of his existence as
his beating heart called up a gleam of alert under-
standing upon the sternness of his aged face. The
flame of the lamp swayed, and the old man, with
knitted and bushy eyebrows, stood over the brake,
Kratchful and motionless in the wild saraband of
lancing shadows. Then the ship, obedient to the
tall of her anchor, forged ahead slightly and eased
the strain. The cable relieved, hung down, and
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 31
after swaying imperceptibly to and fro dropped with
a loud tap on the hard wood planks. Singleton
seized the high lever, and, by a violent throw for-
ward of his body, wrung out another half-turn
from the brake. He recovered himself, breathed
largely, and remained for awhile glaring down at
the powerful and compact engine that squatted on
the deck at his feet, like some quiet monster — a
creature amazing and tame.
" You . . . hold ! " he growled at it master-
fully, in the incult tangle of his white beard.
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32 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
II
Next morning, at daylight, the " Narcissus ** went
to sea.
A slight haze blurred the horizon. Outside the
harbour the measureless expanse of smooth water
lay sparkling like a floor of jewels, and as empty as
the sky. The short black tug gave a pluck to
windward, in the usual way, then let go the rope,
and hovered for a moment on the quarter with her
engines stopped ; while the slim, long hull of the
ship moved ahead slowly under lower topsails.
The loose upper canvas blew out in the breeze
with soft round contours, resembling small white
clouds snared in the maze of ropes. Then the
sheets were hauled home, the yards hoisted, and
the ship became a high and lonely pyramid gliding,
all shining and white, through the sunlit mist.
The tug turned short round and went away to-
wards the land. Twenty-six pairs of eyes watched
her low broad stern crawling languidly over the
smooth swell between the two paddle-wheels that
turned fast, beating the water with fierce hurry.
She resembled an enormous and aquatic black-
beetle, surprised by the light, overwhelmed by the
sunshine, trying to escape with ineffectual eflfbrt
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 33
into the distant gloom of the land. She left a lin-
gering smudge of smoke on the sky, and two van-
ishing trails of foam on the water. On the place
where she had stopped a round black patch of soot
remained, undulating on the swell — an unclean
mark of the creature's rest.
The "Narcissus" left alone, heading south,
seemed to stand resplendent and still upon the rest-
less sea, under the moving sun. Flakes of foam
swept past her sides; the water struck her with
flashing blows ; the land glided away, slowly fad-
ing; a few birds screamed on motionless wings
over the swaying mastheads. But soon the land
disappeared, the birds went away; and to the west
the pointed sail of an Arab dhow running for
Bombay, rose triangular and upright above the
sharp edge of the horizon, lingered, and vanished
like an illusion. Then the ship's wake, long and
straight, stretched itself out through a day of
immense solitude. The setting sun, burning on
the level of the water, flamed crimson below the
blackness of heavy rain clouds. The sunset squall,
coming up from behind, dissolved itself into the
short deluge of a hissing shower. It left the ship
glistening from trucks to waterline, and with dark-
ened sails. She ran easily before a fair monsoon,
with her decks cleared for the night ; and, moving
along with her, was heard the sustained and
monotonous swishing of the waves, mingled with
the low whispers of men mustered aft for the set-
3
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34 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
ting of watches; the short plaint of some block
aloft ; or, now and then, a loud sigh of wind.
Mr. Baker, coming out of his cabin, called out
the first name sharply before closing the door be-
hind him. He was going to take charge of the
deck. On the homeward trip, according to an old
custom of the sea, the chief officer takes the first
night-watch — from eight till midnight. So Mr.
Baker, after he had heard the last " Yes, sir ! " said
moodily, ** Relieve the wheel and look-out 5 " and
climbed with heavy feet the poop ladder to wind-
ward. Soon after Mr. Creighton came down,
whistling softly, and went into the cabin. On the
doorstep the steward lounged, in slippers, medita-
tive, and with his shirt-sleeves rolled up to the arm-
pits. On the main deck the cook, locking up the
galley doors, had an altercation with young Charley
about a pair of socks. He could be heard saying
impressively, in the darkness amidships : " You
don't deserve a kindness. I 've been drying them
for you, and now you complain about the holes —
and you swear, too ! Right in front of me ! If I
had n't been a Christian — which you ain't, you
young ruffian — I would give you a clout on the
head. . . . Go away ! " Men in couples or threes
stood pensive or moved silently along the bulwarks
in the waist. The first busy day of a homeward
passage was sinking into the dull peace of resumed
routine. Aft, on the high poop, Mr. Baker walked
^mffling 'y grunted to himself in the pauses of his
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 3^5
thoughts. Forward, the look-out man, erect be-
tween the flukes of the two anchors, hummed an
endless tune, keeping his eyes fixed dutifully ahead
in a vacant stare. A multitude of stars coming
out into the clear night peopled the emptiness of
the sky. They glittered, as if alive above the sea ;
they surrounded the running ship on all sides :
more intense than the eyes of a staring crowd, and
as inscrutable as the souls of men.
The passage had begun ; and the ship, a frag-
ment detached from the earth, went on lonely and
swift like a small planet. Round her the abysses
of sky and sea met in an unattainable frontier. A
great circular solitude moved with her, ever change
ing and ever the same, always monotonous and
always imposing. Now and then another wander-
ing white speck, burdened with life, appeared far
oflF — disappeared ; intent on its own destiny. The
sun looked upon her all day, and every morning
rose with a burning, round stare of undying curios-
ity. She had her own future ; she was alive with
the lives of those beings who trod her decks ; like
that earth which had given her up to the sea, she
had an intolerable load of regrets and hopes. On
her lived timid truth and audacious lies ; and, like
the earth, she was unconscious, fair to see — and
condemned by men to an ignoble fate. The august
loneliness of her path lent dignity to the sordid in-
spiration of her pilgrimage. She drove foaming to
the southward, as if guided t^ the courage of a high
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36 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
endeavour. The smiling greatness of the sea
dwarfed the extent of time. The days raced after
one another, brilliant and quick like the flashes of
a lighthouse, and the nights, eventful and short,
resembled fleeting dreams.
The men had shaken into their places, and the
half-hourly voice of the bells ruled their life of
unceasing care. Night and day the head and
shoulders of a seaman could be seen aft by the
wheel, outlined high against sunshine or starlight,
very steady above the stir of revolving spokes.
The faces changed, passing in rotation. Youth-
ful faces, bearded faces, dark faces : faces serene,
or faces moody, but all akin with the brotherhood
of the sea j all with the same attentive expression
of eyes, carefully watching the compass or the
sails. Captain Allistoun, serious, and with an old
red muffler round his throat, all day long pervaded
the poop. At night, many times he rose out of
the darkness of the companion, such as a phantom
above a grave, and stood watchful and mute under
the stars, his night-shirt fluttering like a flag —
then, without a sound, sank down again. He was
born on the shores of the Pentland Firth. In his
youth he attained the rank of harpooner in Peter-
head whalers. When he spoke of that time his
restless grey eyes became still and cold, like the
loom of ice. Afterwards he went into the East
Indian trade for the sake of change. He had com-
manded the " Narcissus " since she was built. He
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 37
loved his ship, and drove her unmercifully ; foi
his secret ambition was to make her accomplish
some day a brilliantly quick passage which would
be mentioned in nautical papers. He pronounced
his owner's name with a sardonic smile, spoke but
seldom to his officers, and reproved errors in a
gentle voice, with words that cut to the quick.
His hair was iron-grey, his face hard and of the
colour of pump-leather. He shaved every morn-
ing of his life — at six — but once (being caught
in a fierce hurricane eighty miles southwest of
Mauritius) he had missed three consecutive days.
He feared naught but an unforgiving God, and
wished to end his days in a little house, with a
plot of ground attached — far in the country —
out of sight of the sea.
He, the ruler of that minute world, seldom de-
scended from the Olympian heights of his poop.
Below him — at his feet, so to speak — common
mortals led their busy and insignificant lives.
Along the main deck Mr. Baker grunted in a
manner bloodthirsty and innocuous ; and kept all
our noses to the grindstone, being — as he once
remarked — paid for doing that very thing. The
men working about the deck were healthy and
contented — as most seamen are, when once well
out to sea. The true peace of God begins at any
spot a thousand miles from the nearest land 5 and
when He sends there the messengers of His might,
it is not in terrible wrath against crime, presump-
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38 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
tion, and folly, but paternally, to chasten simple
hearts - — ignorant hearts that know nothing of
life, and beat undisturbed by envy or greed.
In the evening the cleared decks had a reposeful
aspect, resembling the autumn of the earth. The
sun was sinking to rest, wrapped in a mantle of
warm clouds. Forward, on the end of the spare
spars, the boatswain and the carpenter sat together
with crossed arms; two men friendly, powerful,
and deep-chested. Beside them the short, dumpy
sailmaker — who had been in the Navy — related,
between the whiffs of his pipe, impossible stories
about Admirals. Couples tramped backwards and
forwards, keeping step and balance without effort,
in a confined space. Pigs grunted in the big pig-
stye. Belfast, leaning thoughtfully on his elbow,
above the bars, communed with them through the
silence of his meditation. Fellows with shirts
open wide on sunburnt breasts sat upon the moor-
ing bits, and all up the steps of the forecastle
ladders. By the foremast a few discussed in a
circle the characteristics of a gentleman. One
said : " It 's money as does it." Another main-
tained : '' No, it 's the way they speak." Lame
Knowles stumped up with an unwashed face (he
had the distinction of being the dirty man of the
forecastle), and, showing a few yellow fangs in a
shrewd smile, explained craftily that he " had seen
some of their pants." The backsides of them —
he had observed — were thinner than paper from
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 39
constant sitting down in offices, yet otherwise they
looked first-rate and would last for years. It was
all appearance. '' It was/' he said, " bloomin*
easy to be a gentleman when you had a clean job
for life." They disputed endlessly, obstinate and
childish ; they repeated in shouts and with inflamed
faces their amazing arguments ; while the soft
breeze, eddying down the enormous cavity of the
foresail, that stood out distended above their bare
heads, stirred the tumbled hair with a touch passing
and light like an indulgent caress.
They were forgetting their toil, they were for-
getting themselves. The cook approached to hear,
and stood by, beaming with the inward conscious-
ness of his faith, like a conceited saint ' unable to
forget his glorious reward. Donkin, solitary and
brooding over his wrongs on the forecastle-head,
moved closer to catch the drift of the discussion
below him ; he turned his sallow &ce to the sea,
and his thin nostrils moved, sniffing the breeze, as
he lounged negligently by the rail. In the glow of
sunset faces shone with interest, teeth flashed, eyes
sparkled. The walking couples stood still sud-
denly, with broad grins; a man, bending over
a washtub, sat up, entranced, with the soapsuds
flecking his wet arms. Even the three petty
officers listened leaning back, comfortably propped,
and with superior smiles. Belfest left oiSF scratch-
ing the ear of his favourite pig, and, open-mouthed,
tried with eager eyes to have his szj. He lifted
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40 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
his arms, grimacing and baffled. From a distance
Charley screamed at the ring: ''I know about
gentlemen more 'n any of you. I 've been hinty-
mate with 'em ... I've blacked their boots."
The cook, craning his neck to hear better, was
scandalised. " Keep your mouth shut when your
elders speak, you impudent young heathen — you."
— "All right, old Hallelujah, I 'm done," answered
Charley, soothingly. At some opinion of dirty
Knowles, delivered with an air of supernatural cun-
ning, a ripple of laughter ran along, rose like a
wave, burst with a startling roar. They stamped
with both feet ; they turned their shouting faces to
the sky ; many, spluttering, slapped their thighs ;
while one or two, bent double, gasped, hugging
themselves with both arms like men in pain. The
carpenter and the boatswain, without changing their
attitude, shook with laughter where they sat ; the
sail maker, charged with an anecdote about a Com-
modore, looked sulky ; the cook was wiping his
eyes with a greasy rag ; and lame Knowles, aston-
ished at his own success, stood in their midst show-
ing a slow smile.
Suddenly the face of Donkin leaning high*
shouldered over the after-rail became grave. Some^
thing like a weak rattle was heard through the
forecastle door. It became a murmur; it ended
in a sighing groan. The washerman plunged both
his arms into the tub abruptly ; the cook became
more crest&Uen than an exposed backslider; the
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 41
boatswain moved his shoulders uneasily; the car-
penter got up with a spring and walked away —
while the sailmaker seemed mentally to give his
story up, and began to pufF at his pipe with sombre
determination. In the blackness of the doorway a
pair of eyes glimmered white, and big, and staring.
Then James Wait's head, protruding, became vis-
ible, as if suspended between the two hands that
grasped a doorpost on each side of the face. The
tassel of his blue woollen nightcap, cocked forward,
danced gaily over his left eyelid. He stepped out
in a tottering stride. He looked powerful as ever,
but showed a strange and affected unsteadiness in
his gait ; his face was perhaps a trifle thinner, and
his eyes appeared rather startlingly prominent. He
seemed to hasten the retreat of departing light by
his very presence ; the setting sun dipped sharply,
as though fleeing before our nigger ; a black mist
emanated from him ; a subtle and dismal influence ;
a something cold and gloomy that floated out and
settled on all the faces like a mourning veil. The
circle broke up. The joy of laughter died on stiff-
ened lips. There was not a smile left among all
the ship's company. Not a word was spoken.
Many turned their backs, trying to look uncon-
cerned; others, with averted heads, sent half-
reluctant glances out of the corners of their eyes.
They resembled criminals conscious of misdeeds
more than honest men distracted by doubt ; only
two or three stared frankly, but stupidly, with lips
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42 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
slightly open. All expected James Wait to say
something, and, at the same time, had the air of
knowing beforehand what he would say. He
leaned his back against the doorpost, and with
heavy eyes swept over us a glance domineering and
pained, like a sick tyrant overawing a crowd of
abject but untrustworthy slaves.
No one went away. They waited in fascinated
dread. He said ironically, with gasps between the
words, —
" Thank you . . . chaps. You ... arc nice
• • • and . . . quiet . . . you are ! Yelling so
. . . before ... the door . . ."
He made a longer pause, during which he
worked his ribs in an exaggerated labour of breath-
ing. It was intolerable. Feet were shuffled.
Belfast let out a groan ; but Donkin above blinked
his red eyelids with invisible eyelashes, and smiled
bitterly over the nigger's head.
The nigger went on again with surprising ease.
He gasped no more, and his voice rang, hollow and
loud, as though he had been talking in an empty
cavern. He was contemptuously angry.
" I tried to get a wink of sleep. You know I
can't sleep o' nights. And you come jabbering
near the door here like a blooming lot of old
women. . . . You think yourselves good ship-
mates. Do you ? . . . Much you care for a dying
man!"
Belfast spun away (rom the pigstye. '* Jimmy,'*
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 43
he cried tremulously, ^^ if you bad n't been sick I
would "
He stopped. The nigger waited awhile, then
said, in a gloomy tone : ^^ You would • • • What ?
Go an' fight another such one as yourself. Leave
me alone. It won't be for long. I 'U soon die.
... It 's coming right enough ! "
Men stood around very still, breathing lightly,
and with exasperated eyes. It was just what th^
had expected, and hated to hear, that idea of a
stalking death, thrust at diem many times a day
like a boast and like a menace by this obnoxious
nigger. He seemed to take a pride in that death
which, so far, had attended only upon the ease of
his life ; he was overbearing about it, as if no one
else in the world had ever been intimate with such
a companion ; he paraded it unceasingly before us
with an affectionate persistence that made its pres-
ence indubitable, and at the same time incredible.
No man could be suspected of such monstrous
friendship ! Was he a reality, or was he a sham,
— this ever-expected visitor of Jimmy's? We
hesitated between pity and mistrust, while, on the
slightest provocation, he shook before our eyes the
bones of his bothersome and infamous skeleton.
He was for ever trotting him out. He would talk
of that coming death as though it had been already
there, as if it had been walking the deck outside, as
if it would presently come in to sleep in the only
empty bunk ; as if it had sat by his side at every
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44 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
meal. It interfered daily with our occupations,
with our leisure, with our amusements. We had
no songs and no music in the evening, because
Jimmy (we all lovingly called him Jimmy, to con-
ceal our hate of his accomplice) had managed, with
that prospective decease of his, to disturb even
Archie's mental balance. Archie was the owner
of the concertina ; but after a couple of stinging
lectures from Jimmy he refused to play any more.
He said : " Yon 's an uncanny joker. I dinna ken
what 's wrang wi' him, but there 's something verra
wrang, verra wrang. It 's nae manner of use ask-
ing me. I won't play." Our singers became mute
because Jimmy was a dying man. For the same
reason no chap — as Knowles remarked — could
" drive in a nail to hang his few poor rags upon,"
without being made aware of the enormity he com-
mitted in disturbing Jimmy's interminable last
moments. At night, instead of the cheerful yell,
'* One bell ! Turn out ! Do you hear there r
Hey ! hey ! hey ! Show leg ! " the watches were
called, man by man, in whispers, so as not to inter-
fere with Jimmy's, possibly, last slumber on earth.
True, he was always awake, and managed, as we
sneaked out on deck, to plant in our backs some
cutting remark that, for the moment, made us feel
as if we had been brutes, and afterwards made us
suspect ourselves of being fools. We spoke in low
tones within that fo'c'sle as though it had been a
church. We ate our meals in silence and dread.
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 45
for Jimmy was capricious with his food, and railed
bitterly at the salt meat, at the biscuits, at the tea,
as at articles unlit for human consumption ^Met
alone for a dying man ! " He would say : " Can't
you find a better slice of meat for a sick man who 's
trying to get home to be cured — or buried ? But
there ! If I had a chance, you fellows would do
away with it. You would poison me. Look at
what you have given me ! " We served him in
his bed with rage and humility, as though we had
been the base courtiers of a hated prince ; and he
rewarded us by his unconciliating criticism. He
had found the secret of keeping for ever on the run
the fundamental imbecility of mankind; he had
the secret of life, that confounded dying man, and
he made himself master of every moment of our
existence. We grew desperate, and remained sub-
missive. Emotional little Belfast was for ever on
the verge of assault or on the verge of tears. One
evening he confided to Archie : " For a ha'penny
I would knock his ugly black head off — the skulk-
ing dodger ! " And the straightforward Archie pre-
tended to be shocked ! Such was the infernal spell
which that casual St. Kitt's nigger had cast upon
our guileless manhood ! But the same night Bel-
fast stole from the galley the officers' Sunday fruit
pie, to tempt the fastidious appetite of Jimmy. He
endangered not only his long friendship with the
cook, but also, as it appeared, his eternal welfare.
The cook was overwhelmed with grief; he did not
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46 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
know tbe culprit, but be knew that wickedness
flourisbed ; be knew tbat Satan was abroad amongst
tbose men, wbom be looked upon as in some way
under bis spiritual care. Whenever he saw three
or four of us standing together, he would leave bis
stove, to run out and preach. We fled from him ;
and only Charley (who knew the thief) affronted
the cook with a candid gaze which irritated the
good man. " It 's you, I believe," be groaned,
sorrowful, and with a patch of soot on his chin.
'* It 's you. You are a brand for the burning ! No
more of your socks in my galley." Soon, unofli-
cially, the information was spread about tbat, should
there be another case of stealing, our marmalade
(an extra allowance : half a pound per man) wouW
be stopped. Mr. Baker ceased to heap joculai
abuse upon his favourites, and grunted suspiciously
at all. The captain's cold eyes, high up on the
poop, glittered mistrustful, as be surveyed us troop-
ing in a small mob from halyards to braces for the
usual evening pull at all the ropes. Such stealing
in a merchant ship is difficult to check, and may be
taken as a declaration by men of their dislike for
their officers. It is a bad symptom. It may end
in God knows what trouble. The " Narcissus "
was still a peaceful ship, but mutual confidence was
shaken. Donkin did not conceal his delight. We
were dismayed.
Then illogical Belfast reproached our nigger
with great furv. James Wait, with bis elbow
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 47
on the pillow, choked, gasped out : ^^ Did I ask
you to bone the dratted thing ? Blow your blamed
pie. It has made me worse — you little Irish
lunatic, you ! " Belfast, with scarlet face and
trembling lips, made a dash at him. Every man
in the forecastle rose with a shout. There was a
moment of wild tumult, Some one shrieked
piercingly : " Easy, Bel&st ! Easy ! . . ." We
expected Belfast to strangle Wait without more
ado. Dust flew. We heard through it the nig-
ger's cough, metallic and explosive like a gong.
Next moment we saw Belfast hanging over him.
He was saying plaintively : '' Don't ! Don't,
Jimmy ! Don't be like that. An angel could n't
put up with ye — sick as ye are." He looked
round at us from Jimmy's bedside, his comical
mouth twitching, and through tearful eyes ; then
b'; tried to put straight the disarranged blankets.
The unceasing whisper of the sea filled the fore-
castle. Was James Wait frightened, or touched,
or repentant ? He lay on his back with a hand to
his side, and as motionless as if his expected visitor
had come at last. Belfast fumbled about his feet,
repeating with emotion : *' Yes. We know. Ye
are bad, but . . . Just say what ye want done,
and . . . We all know ye are bad — very
bad . . ." No ! Decidedly James Wait was not
touched or repentant. Truth to say, he seemed
rather startled. He sat up with incredible sudden-
ness and ease. ^^ Ah I You think I am bad, do
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48 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
you ? " he said gloomily, in his clearest baritone
voice (to hear him speak sometimes you would
never think there was anything wrong with that
man). " Do you ? . • . Well, act according !
Some of you have n't sense enough to put a blan-
ket ship-shape over a sick man. There ! Leave
it alone ! I can die anyhow ! " Belfast turned
away limply with a gesture of discouragement. In
the silence of the forecastle, full of interested men,
Donkin pronounced distinctly : " Well, I 'm
blowed ! " and sniggered. Wait looked at him.
He looked at him in a quite friendly manner.
Nobody could tell what would please our incom-
prehensible invalid; but for us the scorn of that
snigger was hard to bear.
Donkin's position in the forecastle was distin-
guished but unsafe. He stood on the bad emi-
nence of a general dislike. He was left alone;
and in his isolation he could do nothing but think
of the gales of the Cape of Good Hope and envy
us the possession of warm clothing and water-
proofs. Our sea-boots, our oilskin coats, our well-
filled sea-chests, were to him so many causes for
bitter meditation: he had none of those things,
and he felt instinctively that no man, when the
need arose, would offer to share them with him.
He was impudently cringing to us and systemati-
cally insolent to the officers. He anticipated the
best results, for himself, from such a line of con-
duct — and was mistaken. Such natures forget
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 49
that under extreme provocation men will be just —
whether they want to be so or not. Donkin's
insolence to long-sufFering Mr. Baker became at
last intolerable to us, and we rejoiced when the
mate, one dark night, tamed him for good. It was
done neatly, with great decency and decorum, and
with little noise. We had been called — just
before midnight — to trim the yards, and Donkin
— as usual — made insulting remarks. We stood
sleepily in a row with the forebrace in our hands
waiting for the next order, and heard in the dark-
ness a scuffly trampling of feet, an exclamation of
surprise, sounds of cuffs and slaps, suppressed, hiss-
ing whispers : " Ah ! Will you ! " . . . " Don't !
. . . Don't!" . . . "Then behave." . . .
" Oh ! Oh ! . . ." Afterwards there were soft
thuds mixed with the rattle of iron things as if a
man's body had been tumbling helplessly amongst
the main-pump rods. Before we could realise the
situation, Mr. Baker's voice was heard very near
and a little impatient : " Haul away, men ! Lay
back on that rope ! " And we did lay back on the
rope with great alacrity. As if nothing had hap-
pened, the chief mate went on trimming the yards
with his usual and exasperating fastidiousness. We
didn't at the time see anything of Donkin, and
did not care. Had the chief officer thrown him
overboard, no man would have said as much as
*' Hallo ! he 's gone ! " But, in truth, no great
harm was done — even if Donkin did lose one of
4
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50 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
his front teeth. We perceived this in the morning,
and preserved a ceremonious silence : the etiquette
of the forecastle commanded us to be blind and
dumb in such a case, and we cherished the decen-
cies of our life more than ordinary landsmen
respect theirs. Charley, with unpardonable want
of savoir vivre^ yelled out : '' 'Ave you been to
your dentyst ? . . . Hurt ye, did n't it ? " He
got a box on the ear from one of his best friends.
The boy was surprised, and remained plunged in
grief for at least three hours. . We were sorry for
him, but youth requires even more discipline than
age. Donkin grinned venomously. From that
day he became pitiless -y told Jimmy that he was a
** black fraud ; " hinted to us that we were an
imbecile lot, daily taken in by a vulgar nigger.
And Jimmy seemed to like the fellow !
Singleton lived untouched by human emotions.
Taciturn and unsmiling, he breathed amongst us
— in that alone resembling the rest of the crowd.
We were trying to be decent chaps, and found it
jolly difficult ; we oscillated between the desire of
virtue and the fear of ridicule ; we wished to save
ourselves from the pain of remorse, but did not
want to be made the contemptible dupes of our
sentiment. Jimmy's hateful accomplice seemed to
have blown with his impure breath undreamt-of
subtleties into our hearts. We were disturbed and
cowardly. That we knew. Singleton seemed
to know nothing, understand nothing. We had
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 51
thought him till then as wise as he looked, but
now we dared, at times, suspect him of being
stupid — from old age. One day, however, at
dinner, as we sat on our boxes round a tin dish
that stood on the deck within the circle of oui
feet, Jimmy expressed his general disgust with
men and things in words that were particularly
disgusting. Singleton lifted his head. We became
mute. The old man, addressing Jimmy, asked:
" Are you dying ? " Thus interrogated, James
Wait appeared horribly startled and confused. We
all were startled. Mouths remained open ; hearts
thumped ; eyes blinked ; a dropped tin fork rattled
in the dish -, a man rose as if to go out, and stood
still. In less than a minute Jimmy pulled himself
together. " Why ? Can't you see I am ? " he
answered shakily. Singleton lifted a piece of
soaked biscuit (" his teeth " — he declared —
" had no edge on them now ") to his lips.
**Well, get on with your dying," he said with
venerable mildness; "don't raise a blamed fuss
with us over that job. We can't help you."
Jimmy fell back in his bunk, and for a long time
lay very still, wiping the perspiration off his chin.
The dinner-tins were put away quickly. On
deck we discussed the incident in whispers. Some
showed a chuckling exultation. Many looked
grave. Wamibo, after long periods of staring
dreaminess, attempted abortive smiles; and one
of the young Scandinavians, much tormented b^
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52 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
doubt, ventured in the second dog-watch to ap»
proach Singleton (the old man did not encourage
us much to speak to him) and ask sheepishly:
" You think he will die ? " Singleton looked up.
"Why, of course he will die," he said delib-
erately. This seemed decisive. It was promptly
imparted to every one by him who had consulted
the oracle. Shy and eager, he would step up and
with averted gaze recite his formula : " Old Sin-
gleton says he will die." It was a relief ! At last
we knew that our compassion would not be mis-
placed, and we could again smile without mis-
givings — but we reckoned without Donkin.
Donkin " did n't want to *ave no truck with 'em
dirty furriners." When Neillssen came to him
with the news, " Singleton says he will die,"
he answered him by a spiteful " And so will you
— you fat-headed Dutchman. Wish you Dutch-
men were hall dead — 'stead comin' takin' our
money hinto your starvin' country." We were
appalled. We perceived that after all Singleton's
answer meant nothing. We began to hate him
for making fun of us. All our certitudes were
going ; we were on doubtful terms with our offi-
cers ; the cook had given us up for lost ; we had
overheard the boatswain's opinion that " we were
a crowd of softies." We suspected Jimmy, one
another, and even our very selves. We did not
know what to do. At every insignificant turn of
our humble life we met Jimmy overbearing and
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 53
blocking the way, arm-in-arm with his awful and
veiled familiar. It was a weird servitude.
It began a week after leaving Bombay and came
on us stealthily like any other great misfortune.
Every one had remarked that Jimmy from the first
was very slack at his work; but we thought it
simply the outcome of his philosophy of life.
Donkin said : " You put no more weight on a
rope than a bloody sparrer." He disdained him.
Belfast, ready for a fight, exclaimed provokingly :
« You don't kill yourself, old man ! " — " Would
YOU? '' he retorted with extreme scorn — and Bel-
fast retired. One morning, as we were washing
decks, Mr. Baker called to him : " Bring your
broom over here. Wait." He strolled languidly.
" Move yourself! Ough ! " grunted Mr. Baker;
" what 's the matter with your hind legs ? " He
stopped dead short. He gazed slowly with eyes
that bulged out, with an expression audacious and
sad. " It is n't my legs," he said, " it 's my lungs."
Everybody listened. — " What 's . . . Ough ! . . .
what 's wrong with them ? " inquired Mr. Baker.
All the watch stood around on the wet deck, grin-
ning, and with brooms or buckets in their hands.
He said moumfiilly: "Going — or goiie. Can't
you see I 'm a dying man ? I know it ! " Mr.
Baker was disgusted. "Then why the devil did
you ship aboard here ? " — "I must live till I die —
must n't I ? " he replied. The grins became audi-
ble. "Go off the deck — get out of my sight,"
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54 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
said Mr. Baker. He was nonplussed. It was an
unique experience. James Wait, obedient, dropped
his broom, and walked slowly forward. A burst
of laughter followed him. It was too funny. All
hands laughed. . . . They laughed ! . . . Alas !
He became the tormentor of all our moments ;
he was worse than a nightmare. You could n't
see that there was anything wrong with him : a
nigger does not show. He was not very fat —
certainly — but then he was no leaner than other
niggers we had known. He coughed often, but the
most prejudiced person could perceive that, mostly,
he coughed when it suited his purpose. He
would n't, or could n't, do his work — and he
would n't lie-up. One day he would skip aloft
with the best of them, and next time we would be
obliged to risk our lives to get his limp body down.
He was reported, he was examined ; he was re-
monstrated with, threatened, cajoled, lectuied. He
was called into the cabin to interview the cap-
tain. There were wild rumours. It was said he
had cheeked the old man ; it was said he had
frightened him. Charley maintained that the
" skipper, weepin', 'as giv' 'im 'is blessin' an' a pot
of jam." Knowles had it from the steward that
the unspeakable Jimmy had been reeling against
the cabin furniture ; that he had groaned ; that he
had complained of general brutality and disbelief;
and had ended by coughing all over the old man's
meteorological journals which were then spread on
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 55
the table. At any rate, Wait returned forward
supported by the steward, who, in a pained and
shocked voice, entreated us : " Here ! Catch
hold of him, one of you. He is to lie-up." Jimmy
drank a tin mugful of coffee, and, after bullying
first one and then another, went to bed. He re-
mained there most of the time, but when it suited
him would come on deck and appear amongst us.
He was scornful and brooding; he looked ahead
upon the sea; and no one could tell what was the
meaning of that black man sitting apart in a medi-
tative attitude and as motionless as a carving.
He refused steadily all medicine ; he threw s^o
and cornflour overboard till the steward got tired of
bringing it to him. He asked for paregoric. They
sent him a big bottle ; enough to poison a wilder-
ness of babies. He kept it between his mattress
and the deal lining of the ship's side ; and nobody
ever saw him take a dose. Donkin abused him to
his face, jeered at him while he gasped ; and the
same day Wait would lend him a warm jersey.
Once Donkin reviled him for half an hour; re-
proached him with the extra work his malingering
gave to the watch ; and ended by calling him " a
black-faced swine." Under the spell of our
accursed perversity we were horror-struck. But
Jimmy positively seemed to revel in that abuse.
It made him look cheerful — and Donkin had a pair
of old sea boots thrown at him. " Here, you East-
end trash,** boomed Wait, " you may have that."
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56 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
At last Mr. Baker had to tell the captain that
James Wait was disturbing the peace of the ship.
"Knock discipline on the head — he will, Ough,"
grunted Mr. Baker. As a matter of fact, the star-
board watch came as near as possible to refusing
duty, when ordered one morning by the boatswain
to wash out their forecastle. It appears Jimmy
objected to a wet floor — and that morning we
were in a compassionate mood. We thought the
boatswain a brute, and, practically, told him so.
Only Mr. Baker's delicate tact prevented an all-fired
row : he refused to take us seriously. He came
bustling forward, and called us many unpolite names,
but in such a hearty and seamanlike manner that
we began to feel ashamed of ourselves. In truth,
we thought him much too good a sailor to annoy
him willingly : and after all Jimmy might have
been a fraud — probably was ! The forecastle got
a clean up that morning ; but in the afternoon a
sick-bay was fitted up in the deck-house. It was
a nice little cabin opening on deck, and with
two berths. Jimmy's belongings were transported
there, and then — notwithstanding his protests —
Jimmy himself. He said he could n't walk. Four
men carried him on a blanket. He complained
that he would have to die there alone, like a dog.
We grieved for him, and were delighted to have
him removed from the forecastle. We attended
him as before. The galley was next door, and the
cook looked in many times a day. Wait became
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 57
a little more cheerful. Knowles affirmed having
heard him laugh to himself in peals one day.
Others had seen him walking about on deck at
night. His little place, with the door ajar on a
long hook, was always full of tobacco smoke. We
spoke through the crack cheerfully, sometimes
abusively, as we passed by, intent on our work.
He fascinated us. He would never let doubt die.
He overshadowed the ship. Invulnerable in his
promise of speedy corruption he trampled on our
self-respect, he demonstrated to us daily our wanv
of moral courage ; he tainted our lives. Had Wfe
been a miserable gang of wretched immortals, un-
hallowed alike by hope and fear, he could not have
lorded it over us with a more pitiless assertion o^
his sublime privilege.
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in
A^«antim£ the "Narcissus," with square yards,
ran out of the fair monsoon. She drifted slowly,
swinging round and round the compass, through a
few days of baffling light airs. Under the patter
of short warm showers, grumbling men whirled
the heavy yards from side to side ; they caught
hold of the soaked ropes with groans and sighs,
while their officers, sulky and dripping with rain
water, unceasingly ordered them about in wearied
voices. During the short respites they looked
with disgust into the smarting palms of their stifF
hands, and asked one another bitterly : " Who
would be a sailor if he could be a farmer ? *' All
the tempers were spoilt, and no man cared what
he said. One black night, when the watch, pant-
ing in the heat and half-drowned with the rain,
had been through four mortal hours hunted from
brace to brace, Belfast declared that he would
" chuck going to sea for ever and go in a steamer."
This was excessive, no doubt. Captain Allistoun,
with great self-control, would mutter sadly to Mr.
Baker : " It is not so bad — not so bad," when he
had managed to shove, and dodge, and manoeuvre
his smart ship through sixty miles in twenty-four
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 59
hours. From the doorstep of the little cabin,
Jimmy, chin in hand, watched our distasteful la-
bours with insolent and melancholy eyes. We
spoke to him gently — and out of his sight ex-
changed sour smiles.
Then, again, with a fair wind and uAder a clear
sky, the ship went on piling up the South Latitude.
She passed outside Madagascar and Mauritius
without a glimpse of the land Extra lashings
were put on the spare spars. Hatches were looked
to. The steward in his leisure moments and with
a worried air tried to fit washboards to the cabin
doors. Stout canvas was bent with care. Anx-
ious eyes looked to the westward, towards the
cape of storms. The ship began to dip into a
southwest swell, and the softly luminous sky of
low latitudes took on a harder sheen from day to
day above our heads: it arched high above the
ship, vibrating and pale, like an immense dome of
steel, resonant with the deep voice of freshening
gales. The sunshine gleamed cold on the white
curls of black waves. Before the strong breath
of westerly squalls the ship, with reduced sail, lay
slowly over, obstinate and yielding. She drove to
and fro in the unceasing endeavour to fight her
way through the invisible violence of the winds :
she pitched headlong into dark smooth hollows;
she struggled upwards over the snowy ridges of
great running seas; she rolled, restless, from side
to side, like a thing in pain. Enduring and val-
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6o THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
iant, she answered to the call of men ; and her
slim spars waving for ever in abrupt semicircles,
seemed to beckon in vain for help towards the
stormy sky.
It was a bad winter off the Cape that year.
The relieved helmsmen came off flapping their
arms, or ran stamping hard and Mowing into
swollen, red fingers. The watch on deck dodged
the sting of cold sprays, or, crouching in sheltered
corners, watched dismally the high and merciless
seas boarding the ship time after time in unappeas-
able fury. Water tumbled in cataracts over the
forecastle doors. You had to dash through a
waterfall to get into your damp bed. The men
turned in wet and turned out stiff to face the
redeeming and ruthless exactions of their glorious
and obscure fate. Far aft, and peering watchfully
to windward, the officers could be seen through
the mist of squalls. They stood by the weather-
rail, holding on grimly, straight and glistening in
their long coats ; then, at times, in the disordered
plunges of the hard-driven ship, they appeared
high up, attentive, tossing violently above the
grey line of a clouded horizon, and in motionless
attitudes.
They watched the weather and the ship as men
on shore watch the momentous chances of fortune.
Captain Allistoun never left the deck, as though
he had been part of the ship's fittings. Now and
then the steward, shivering, but always in shirt
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 6i
sleeves, would struggle towards him with some
hot coffee, half of which the gale blew out of the
cup before it reached the master's lips. He drank
what was left gravely in one long gulp, while heavy
sprays pattered loudly on his oilskin coat, the seas
swishing broke about his high boots; and he never
took his eyes off the ship. He watched her every
motion ; he kept his gaze riveted upon her as a
loving man who watches the unselfish toil of a
delicate woman, upon the slender thread of whose
existence is hung the whole meaning and joy of
the world. We all watched her. She was beauti-
ful and had a weakness. We loved her no less
for that. We admired her qualities aloud, we
boasted of them to one another, as though they
had been our own, and the consciousness of her
only fault we kept buried in the silence of our
profound affection. She was born in the thunder-
ing peal of hammers beating upon iron, in black
eddies of smoke, under a grey sky, on the banks
of the Clyde. The clamorous and sombre stream
gives birth to things of beauty that float away into
the sunshine of the world to be loved by men.
The " Narcissus " was one of that perfect brood.
Less perfect than many, perhaps, but she was
ours, and, consequently, incomparable. We were
proud of her. In Bombay, ignorant landlubbers
alluded to her as that " pretty grey ship." Pretty !
A scurvy meed of commendation ! We knew she
was the most magnificent sea-boat ever launched.
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62 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
We tried to forget that, like many good sea-boats,
she was at times rather crank. She was exacting.
She wanted care in loading and handling, and no
one knew exactly how much care would be enough.
Such are the imperfections of mere men. The
ship knew, and sometimes would correct the pre-
sumptuous human ignorance by the wholesome
discipline of fear. We had heard ominous stories
about past voyages. The cook (technically a sea-
man, but in reality no sailor) — the cook, when
unstrung by some misfortune, such as the rolling
over of a saucepan, would mutter gloomily while
he wiped the floor : " There ! Look at what she
has done ! Some voy'ge she will drown all hands !
You '11 see if she won't." To which the steward,
snatching in the galley a moment to draw breath
in the hurry of his worried life, would remark
philosophically : " Those that see won't tell, any-
how. I don't want to see it." We derided
those fears. Our hearts went out to the old man
when he pressed her hard so as to make her hold
her own, hold to every inch gained to windward ;
when he made her, under reefed sails, leap obliquely
at enormous waves. The .men, knitted together
aft into a ready group by the first sharp order of
an oflicer coming to take charge of the deck in
bad weather : '* Keep handy the watch," stood
admiring her valiance. Their eyes blinked in the
wind; their dark faces were wet with drops of
water more salt and bitter than human tears »
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA G3
beards and moustaches, soaked, hung straight and
dripping like fine seaweed. They were fantasti-
cally misshapen; in high boots, in hats like hel-
mets, and swaying clumsily, stiff and bulky in
glistening oilskins, they resembled men strangely
equipped for some fabulous adventure. Whenever
she rose easily to a towering green sea, elbows
dug ribs, faces brightened, lips murmured : " Did n't
she do it cleverly ? " and all the heads turning
like one watched with sardonic grins the foiled
wave go roaring to leeward, white with the foam
of a monstrous rage. But when she had not been
quick enough and, struck heavily, lay over trem-
bling under the blow, we clutched at ropes, and
looking up at the narrow bands of drenched and
strained sails waving desperately aloft, we thought
in our hearts : " No wonder. Poor thing ! '*
The thirty-second day^ out of Bombay began
unauspiciously. In the morning a sea smashed
one of the galley doors. We dashed in through
lots of steam and found the cook very wet
and indignant with the ship : " She 's getting
worse every day. She 's trying to drown me in
front of my own stove ! " He was very angry.
We pacified him, and the carpenter, though washed
away twice from there, managed to repair the door.
Through that accident our dinner was not ready
till late, but it did n't matter in the end because
Knowles, who went to fetch it, got knocked down
by a sea and the dinner went over the side. Cap-
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64 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
tain Allistoun, looking more hard and thin-lipped
than ever, hung on to full topsails and foresail, and
would not notice that the ship, asked to do too much,
appeared to lose heart altogether for the first time
since we knew her. She refused to rise, and bored
her way sullenly through the seas. Twice running,
as though she had been blind or weary of life, she
put her nose 'deliberately into a big wave and swept
the decks from end to end. As the boatswain ob-
served with marked annoyance, while we were
splashing about in a body to try and save a worth-
less wash-tub : " Every blooming thing in the
ship is going overboard this afternoon." Vener-
able Singleton broke his habitual silence and said
with a glance aloft : " The old man 's in a
temper with the weather, but it 's no good bein'
angry with the winds of heaven." Jimmy had
shut his door, of course. We knew he was dry
and comfortable within his little cabin, and in our
absurd way were pleased one moment, exasperated
the next, by that certitude. Donkin skulked
shamelessly, uneasy and miserable. He grumbled :
" I 'm perishin' with cold houtside in bioomin'
wet rags, an' that 'ere black sojer sits dry on a
blamed chest full of bloomin' clothes; blank his
black soul!" We took no notice of him; we
h^dly gave a thought to Jimmy and his bosom
friend. There was no leisure for idle probing of
hearts. Sails blew adrift. Things broke loose.
Cold and wet, we were washed about the deck
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 65
while trying to repair dam^es. The ship tossed
about, shaken furiously, like a toy in the hand of a
lunatic. Just at sunset there was a rush to shorten
sail before the menace of a sombre hail cloud.
The hard gust of wind came brutal like the blow
of a fist. The ship relieved of her canvas in time
received it pluckily : she yielded reluctantly to the
violent onset; then, coming up. with a stately and
irresistible motion, brought her spars to windward
in the teeth of the screeching squall. Out of the
abysmal darkness of the black cloud overhead
white hail streamed on her, rattled on the rigging,
leaped in handfuls off the yards, rebounded on the
deck — round and gleaming in the murky turmoil
like a shower of pearls. It passed away. For a
moment a livid sun shot horizontally the last rays
of sinister light between the hills of st^ep, rolling
waves. Then a wild night rushed in — stamped
out in a great howl that disnial remnant of a stormy
day.
There was no sleep on board that night. Most
seamen remember in their life one or two such
nights of a culminating gale. Nothing seems left
of the whole universe but darkness,, clamour, fury
— and the ship. And like the last vestige of a
shattered creation she drifts, bearing an anguished
remnant of sinful mankind, through the distress,
tumult, and pain of an avenging terror. No one
slept in the forecastle. The tin oil-lamp sus-
pended on a long string, smoking, described wide
5
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66 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
circles ; wet clothing made dark heaps on the glis-
tening floor; a thin layer of water rushed to and
fro. In the bed-places men lay booted, resting on
elbows and with open eyes. Hung-up suits of
oil-skin swung out and in, lively and disquieting
like reckless ghosts of decapitated seamen dancing
in a tempest. No one spoke and all listened.
Outside the night moaned and sobbed to the ac-
companiment of a continuous loud tremor as of
innumerable drums beating far off. Shrieks passed
through the air. Tremendous dull blows made
the ship tremble while she rolled under the weight
of the seas toppling on her deck. At times she
soared up swiftly as if to leave this earth for ever,
then during interminable moments fell through a
void with all the hearts on board of her standing
still, till a frightful shock, expected and sudden,
started them off again with a big thump. After
every dislocating jerk of the ship, Wamibo,
stretched full length, his face on the pillow,
groaned slightly with the pain of his tormented
universe. Now and then, for the fraction of an
intolerable second, the ship, in the fiercer burst of
a terrible uproar, remained on her side, vibrating
and still, with a stillness more appalling than the
wildest motion. Then upon all those prone bodies
a stir would pass, a shiver of suspense. A man
would protrude his anxious head and a pair of eyes
glistened in the sway of light glaring wildly. Some
moved their legs a little as if making ready to
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 67
jump out. But several, motionless on their backs
and with one hand gripping hard the edge of the
bunk, smoked nervously with quick pufis, staring
upwards ; immobilised in a great craving for
peace.
At midnight, orders were given to furl the fore
and mizzen topsails. With immense efforts men
crawled aloft through a merciless buffeting, saved
the canvas, and crawled down almost exhausted,
to bear in panting silence the cruel battering
of the seas. Perhaps for the first time in the
history of the merchant service the watch, told
to go below, did not leave the deck, as if compelled
to remain there by the fascination of a venomous
violence. At every heavy gust men, huddled to-
gether, whispered to one another: "It can blow
170 harder;'* and presently the gale would give
them the lie with a piercing shriek, and drive their
breath back into their throats. A fierce squall
seemed to burst asunder the thick mass of sooty
vapours; and above the wrack of torn clouds
glimpses could be caught of the high moon rushing
backwards with frightful speed over the sky, right
into the wind's eye. Many hung their heads,
muttering that it " turned their inwards out " to
look at it. Soon the clouds closed up, and the
world again became a raging, blind darkness that
howled, flinging at the lonely ship salt sprays and
sleet.
About half-past seven the pitchy obscurity round
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68 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
us turned a ghastly grey, and we knew that tht
sun had risen. This unnatural and threatening
daylight, in which we could see one another's wild
eyes and drawn faces, was only an added tax on
our endurance. The horizon seemed to have
come on all sides within arm's length of the ship.
Into that narrowed circle furious seas leaped in,
struck, and leaped out. A rain of salt, heavy
drops flew aslant like mist. The main-topsail had
to be goose-winged, and with stolid resignation
every one prepared to go aloft once more ; but the
officers yelled, pushed back, and at last we under-
stood that no more men would be allowed to go
on the yard than were absolutely necessary for the
work. As at any moment the masts were likely
to be jumped out or blown overboard, we con-
cluded that the captain did n't want to see all his
crowd go over the side at once. That was rea-
sonable. The watch then on duty, led by Mr.
Creighton, began to struggle up the rigging. The
wind flattened them against the ratlines; then,
easing a little, would let them ascend a couple of
steps ; and again, with a sudden gust, pin all up
the shrouds the whole crawling line in attitudes of
crucifixion. The other watch plunged down on
the main deck to haul up the sail. Men's heads
bobbed up as the water flung them irresistibly
from side to side. Mr. Baker grunted encour-
agingly in our midst, spluttering and blowing
amongst the tangled ropes like an energetic por-
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 69
poise. Favoured by an ominous and untrustworthy
lull, the work was done without any one being lost
either off the deck or from the yard. For the
moment the gale seemed to take off, and the ship,
as if grateful for our efforts, plucked up heart and
made better weather of it.
At eight the men off duty, watching their
chance, ran forward over the flooded deck to
get .some rest. The other half of the crew re-
mained aft for their turn of '' seeing her through
her trouble," as they expressed it. The two mates
urged the master to go below. Mr. Baker grunted
in his ear : " Ough ! surely now . . . Ough !
. . . confidence in us . . . nothing more to do
. . . she must lay it out or go. Ough! Ough ! "
Tall young Mr. Creighton smiled down at him
cheerfully : ". . . She 's right as a trivet ! Take
a spell, sir." He looked at them stonily with
bloodshot, sleepless eyes. The rims of his eyelids
were scarlet, and he moved his jaw unceasingly
with a slow effort, as though he had been masti-
cating a lump of india-rubber. He shook his
head. He repeated : " Never mind me. I must
see it out — I must see it out," but he con-
sented to sit down for a moment on the skylight,
with his hard face turned unflinchingly to wind-
ward. The sea spat at it — and, stoical, it streamed
with water as though he had been weeping. On
the weather side of the poop the watch, hanging
on to the mizzen rigging and to one another, tried
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^o THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
to exchange encouraging words. Singleton, at the
wheel, yelled out : " Look out for yourselves ! "
His voice reached them in a warning whisper.
They were startled.
A big, foaming sea came out of the mistj it
made for the ship, roaring wildly, and in its rush it
looked as mischievous and discomposing as a mad-
man with an axe. One or two shouting, scrambled
up the rigging ; most, with a convulsive catch of
the breath, held on where they stood. Singleton
dug his knees under the wheel-box, and carefully
eased the helm to the headlong pitch of the ship,
but without taking his eyes off the coming wave.
It towered close-to and high, like a wall of green
glass topped with snow. The ship rose to it as
though she had soared on wings, and for a moment
rested poised upon the foaming crest, as if she had
been a great sea-bird. Before we could draw breath
a heavy gust struck her, another roller took her
unfairly under the weather bow, she gave a top-
pling lurch, and filled her decks. Captain AUistoun
leaped up, and fell ; Archie rolled over him, scream-
ing : " She will rise ! " She gave another lurch
to leeward ; the lower deadeyes dipped heavily ; the
men's feet flew from under them, and they hung
kicking above the slanting poop. They could see
the ship putting her side in the water, and shouted
all together : " She 's going ! " Forward the fore-
castle doors flew open, and the watch below were
seen leaping out one after another, throwing their
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 71
arms up, and, falling on hands and knees, scrambled
aft on all fours along the high side of the deck, slop-
ing more than the roof of a house. From leeward
the seas rose, pursuing them ; they looked wretched
in a hopeless struggle, like vermin fleeing before a
flood; they fought up the weather ladder of the
poop one after another, half naked and staring
wildly ; and as soon as they got up they shot to
leeward in clusters, with closed eyes, till they
brought up heavily with their ribs against the iron
stanchions of the rail ; then, groaning, they rolled
in a confused mass. The immense volume of
water thrown forward by the last scend of the ship
had burst the lee door of the forecastle. They
could see their chests, pillows, blankets, clothing,
come out floating upon th6 sea. While they
struggled back to windward they looked in dismay.
The straw beds swam high \ the blankets, spread out,
undulated ; while the chests, water-logged and with
a heavy list, pitched heavily, like dismasted hulks,
before they sank; Archie's big coat passed with
outspread arms, resembling a drowned seaman float-
ing with his head under water. Men were slipping
down while trying to dig their fingers into the
planks; others, jammed in corners, rolled enor-
mous eyes. They all yelled unceasingly : " The
masts ! Cut ! Cut ! . . ." A black squall howled
low over the ship, that lay on her side with the
weather yardarms pointing to the clouds; while
the tall masts, inclined nearly to the horizon.
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72 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
seemed to be of an unmeasurable length. The
carpenter let go his hold, rolled against the skylight,
and began to crawl to the cabin entrance, where a
big axe was kept ready for just such an emergency.
At that moment the topsail sheet parted, the end of
the heavy chain racketed aloft, and sparks of red
fire streamed down through the flying sprays. The
sail flapped once with a jerk that seemed to tear
our hearts out through our teeth, and instantly
changed into a bunch of fluttering narrow ribbons
that tied themselves into knots and became quiet
along the yard. Captain AUistoun struggled, man-
aged to stand up with his face near the deck, upon
which men swung on the ends of ropes, like nest
robbers upon a cliflT. One of his feet was on some-
body's chest ; his face was purple ; his lips moved.
He yelled also ; he yelled, bending down : " No !
No ! " Mr. Baker, one leg over the binnacle-stand,
roared out : " Did you say no ? Not cut ? ** He
shook his head madly. " No ! No ! " Between
his legs the crawling carpenter heard, collapsed at
once, and lay full length in the angle of the sky-
light. Voices took up the shout — " No ! No ! **
Then all became still. They waited for the ship
to turn over altogether, and shake them out into
the sea ; and upon the terrific noise of wind and
sea not a murmur of remonstrance came out from
those men, who each would have given ever so
many years of life to see " them damned, bloody
sticks go overboard ! ** They all believed it their
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 73
only chance ; but a little hard-faced man shook his
grey head and shouted " No ! ** without giving
them as much as a glance. They were silent, and
gasped. They gripped rails, they had wound ropes'-
ends under their arms ; they clutched ring-bolts, they
crawled in heaps where there was foothold ; they held
on with both arms, hooked themselves to anything
to windward with elbows, with chins, almost with
their teeth : and some, unable to crawl away from
where they had been flung, felt the sea leap up,
striking against their backs as they struggled up-
wards. Singleton had stuck to the wheel. His
hair flew out in the wind ; the gale seemed to take
its life-long adversary by the beard and shake his
old head. He would n't let go, and, with his knees
forced between the spokes, flew up and down like
a man on a bough. As Death appeared unready,
they began to look about. Donkin, caught by one
foot in a loop of some rope, hung, head down,
below us, and yelled, with his face to the deck :
" Cut ! Cut ! " Two men lowered themselves
cautiously to him; others hauled on the rope.
They caught him up, shoved him into a safer place,
held him. He shouted curses at the master, shook
his fist at him with horrible blasphemies, called upon
us in filthy words to " Cut ! Don't mind that mur-
dering fool ! Cut, some of you ! ** One of his
rescuers struck him a back-handed blow over the
mouth; his head banged on the deck, and he
became suddenly very quiet, with a white face,
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74 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
breathing hard, and with a few drops of blood
trickling from his cut lip. On the lee side another
man could be seen stretched out as if stunned;
only the washboard prevented him from going over
the side. It was the steward. We had to sling
him up like a bale, for he was paralysed with fright.
He had rushed up out of the pantry when he felt
the ship go over, and had rolled down helplessly,
clutching a china mug. It was not broken. With
difficulty we tore it from him, and when he saw it
in our hands he was amazed. " Where did you
get that thing ? " he kept on asking, in a trembling
voice. His shirt was blown to shreds ; the ripped
sleeves flapped like wings. Two men made him
fast, and, doubled over the rope that held him, he
resembled a bundle of wet rags. Mr. Baker
crawled along the line of men, asking : " Are you
all there? " and looking them over. Some blinked
vacantly, others shook convulsively; Wamibo's
head hung over his breast ; and in painful attitudes,
cut by lashings, exhausted with clutching, screwed
up in corners, they breathed heavily. Their lips
twitched, and at every sickening heave of the over-
turned ship they opened them wide as if to shout.
The cook, embracing a wooden stanchion, uncon-
sciously repeated a prayer. In every short inter-
val of the fiendish noises around he could be heard
there, without cap or slippers, imploring in that
storm the Master of our lives not to lead him into
temptation. Soon he also became silent. Ir aU
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 75
chat crowd of cold and hungry men, waiting wearily
for a violent death, not a voice was heard; they
were mute, and in sombre thoughtfulness listened
to the horrible imprecations of the gale.
Hours passed. They were sheltered by the
heavy inclination of the ship from the wind that
rushed in one long unbroken moan above their
heads, but cold rain showers fell at times into the
uneasy calm of their refuge. Under the torment
of that new infliction a pair of shoulders would
writhe a little. Teeth chattered. The sky was
clearing, and bright sunshine gleamed over the
ship. After every burst of battering seas, vivid
and fleeting rainbows arched over the drifting hull
in the flick of sprays. The gale was ending in a
clear blow, which gleamed and cut like a knife.
Between two bearded shellbacks Charley, fastened
with somebody's long muflier to a deck ring-bolt,
wept quietly, with rare tears wrung out by bewil-
derment, cold, hunger, and general misery. One
of his neighbours punched him in the ribs, asking
roughly : " What *s the matter with your cheek ?
In fine weather there 's no holding you, youngster.**
Turning about with prudence he worked himself
out of his coat and threw it over the boy. The
other man closed up, muttering : " 'T will make a
bloomin' man of you, sonny." They flung their
arms over and pressed against him. Charley drew
his feet up and his eyelids dropped. Sighs were
heard, as men, perceiving that they were not to be
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76 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
" drowned in a hurry," tried easier positions. Mr.
Creighton, who had hurt his leg, lay amongst us
with compressed lips. Some fellows belonging to
his watch set about securing him better. Without
a word or a glance he lifted his arms one after
another to facilitate the operation, and not a mus-
cle moved in his stern, young face. They asked
him with solicitude : " Easier now, sir ? ** He
answered with a curt : " That *11 do." He was a
hard young officer, but many of his watch used to
say they liked him well enough because he had
"such a gentlemanly way of damning us up and
down the deck." Others, unable to discern such
fine shades of refinement, respected him for his
smartness. For the first time since the ship had
gone on her beam ends Captain AUistoun gave a
short glance down at his men. He was almost
upright — one foot against the side of the skylight,
one knee on the deck; and with the end of the
vang round his waist swung back and forth with
his gaze fixed ahead, watchful, like a man looking
out for a sign. Before his eyes the ship, with half
her deck below water, rose and fell on heavy seas
that rushed from under her flashing in the cold
sunshine. We began to think she was wonder-
fully buoyant — considering. Confident voices
were heard shouting : " She *11 do, boys ! " Bel-
fast exclaimed with fervour : '* I would giv' a
month's pay for a draw at a pipe ! " One or two,
passing dry tongues on their salt lips, muttered
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 77
something about a " drink of water." The cook,
as if inspired, scrambled up with his breast against
the poop water-cask and looked in. There was a
little at the bottom. He yelled, waving his arms,
and two men began to crawl backwards and for-
wards with the mug. We had a good mouthful
all round. The master shook his head impa-
tiently, refusing. When it came to Charley one
of his neighbours shouted : " That bloomin' boy 's
asleep." He slept as though he had been dosed
with narcotics. They let him be. Singleton held
to the wheel with one hand while he drank,
bending down to shelter his lips from the wind.
Wamibo had to be poked and yelled at before he
saw the mug held before his eyes. Knowles said
sagaciously ; " It 's better 'n a tot o' rum." Mr.
Baker grunted: "Thank ye." Mr. Creighton
drank and nodded. Donkin gulped greedily, glar-
ing over the rim. Belfast made us laugh when
with grimacing mouth he shouted : " Pass it this
way. We 're all taytottlers here." The master,
presented with the mug again by a crouching man,
who screamed up at him : " We all had a drink,
captain," groped for it without ceasing to look
ahead, and handed it back stiffly as though he
could not spare half a glance away from the ship.
Faces brightened. We shouted to the cook:
" Well done, doctor ! " He sat to leeward,
propped by the water-cask and yelled back abun-
dantly, but the seas were breaking it thunder just
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78 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
then, and we only caught snatches that sounded
like : " Providence " and " born again." He was
at his old game of preaching. We made friendly
but derisive gestures at him, and from below he
lifted one arm, holding on with the other, moved
his lips i he beamed up to us, straining his voice
— earnest, and ducking his head before the
sprays.
Suddenly some one cried : " Where *s Jimmy ? "
and we were appalled once more. On the end
of the row the boatswain shouted hoarsely : " Has
any one seed him come out ? " Voices exclaimed
dismally: *^ Drowned — is he? . . . No! In hi?
cabin ! . . . Good Lord ! . . . Caught like a
bloomin' rat in a trap. . • . Could n't open his
door . . . Aye ! She went over too quick and
the water jammed it . . . Poor beggar ! . . .
No help for 'im. . . . Let *s go and see . . .'*
" Damn him, who could go ? " screamed Donkin.
— " Nobody expects you to," growled the man
next to him ; " you 're only a thing." — " Is there
half a chance to get at *im ? " inquired two or
three men together. Belfast untied himself with
blind impetuosity, and all at once shot down to
leeward quicker than a flash of lightning. We
shouted all together with dismay ^ but with his legs
overboard he held and yelled for a rope. In our
extremity nothing could be terrible ; so we judged
him funny kicking there, and with his scared face.
Some one began to laugh, and, as if hysterically
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 79
jifected with screaming merriment, all those hag-
gard men went off laughing, wild-eyed, like a lot
of maniacs tied up on a wall. Mr. Baker swung
off the binnacle-stand and tendered him one leg.
He scrambled up rather scared, and consigning us
with abominable words to the "divvle." "You
are . . . Ough ! You 're a foul-mouthed beg-,
gar, Craik," grunted Mr. Baker. He answered,
stuttering with indignation : " Look at *em, sorr.
The bloomin' dirty images ! laughing at a chum
going overboard. Call themselves men, too."
But from the break of the poop the boatswain
called out : " Come along," and Belfast crawled
away in a hurry to join him. The five men, poised
and gazing over the edge of the poop, looked for
the best way to get forward. They seemed to
hesitate. The others, twisting in their lashings,
turning painfully, stared with open lips. Captain
AUistoun saw nothing j he seemed with his eyes to
hold the ship up in a superhuman concentration
of effort. The wind screamed loud in sunshine j
columns of spray rose straight up; and in the
glitter of rainbows bursting over the trembling hull
the men went over cautiously, disappearing from
sight with deliberate movements.
They went swinging from belaying pin to cleat
above the seas that beat the half-submerged deck.
Their toes scraped the planks. Lumps of green
cold water toppled over the bulwark and on their
^eads. They hung for a moment on strained
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8o THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
arms, with the breath knocked out of them, and
with closed eyes — then, letting go with one hand,
balanced with lolling heads, trying to grab some
rope or stanchion further forward. The long-armed
and athletic boatswain swung quickly, gripping
things with a fist hard as iron, and remember-
ing suddenly snatches of the last letter from his
" old woman." Little Belfast scrambled rageously,
muttering : *' Bloody nigger." Wamibo's tongue
hung out with excitement ; and Archie, intrepid
and calm, watched his chance to move with intelli-
gent coolness.
When above the side of the house, they let go
one after another, and falling heavily, sprawled,
pressing their palms to the smooth teak wood.
Round them the backwash of waves seethed white
and hissing. All the doors had become trap-doors,
of course. The first was the galley door. The
galley extended from side to side, and they could
hear the sea splashing with hollow noises in there.
The next door was that of the carpenter's shop.
They lifted it, and looked down. The room
seemed to have been devastated by an earthquake.
Everything in it had tumbled on the bulkhead fac-
ing the door, and on the other side of that bulkhead
there was Jimmy, dead or alive. The bench, a
half-finished meat-safe, saws, chisels, wire rods,
axes, crowbars, lay in a heap besprinkled with
loose nails. A sharp adze stuck up with a shin-
ing edge that gleamed dangerously down there
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 81
like a wicked smile. The men clung to one
another peering. A sickening, sly lurch of the
ship nearly sent them overboard in a body. Bel-
fast howled, " Here goes ! " and leaped down.
Archie followed cannily, catching at shelves that
gave way with him, and eased himself in a great
crash of ripped wood. There was hardly room for
three men to move. And in the sunshiny blue
square of the door, the boatswain's face, bearded and
dark, Wamibo's face, wild and pale, hung over —
watching.
Together they shouted : " Jimmy ! Jim ! **
From above the boatswain contributed a deep
growl : " You . . . Wait ! " In a pause, Bel-
fast entreated: "Jimmy, darlin', are ye aloive?"
The boatswain said : " Again ! All together,
boys ! " All yelled excitedly. Wamibo made
noises resembling loud barks. Belfast drummed
on the side of the bulkhead with a piece of iron.
All ceased suddenly. The sound of screaming and
hammering went on thin and distinct — like a solo
after a chorus. He was alive. He was scream-
ing and knocking below us with the hurry of a man
prematurely shut up in a cofEn. We went to
work. We attacked with desperation the abomi-
nable heap of things heavy, of things sharp, of
things clumsy to handle. The boatswain crawled
away to find somewhere a flying end of a rope ;
and Wamibo, held back by shouts : '* Don't jump !
. , , Don't come in here, muddle-head ! " -*^
4
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82 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
remained glaring above us — all shining eyes,
gleaming fangs, tumbled hair; resembling an
amazed and half-witted fiend gloating over the ex-
traordinary agitation of the damned. The boat-
swain adjured us to "bear a hand," and a rope
descended. We made things fast to it and they
went up spinning, never to be seen by man again.
A rage to fling things overboard possessed us. We
worked fiercely, cutting our hands, and speaking
brutally to one another. Jimmy kept up a dis-
tracting row; he screamed piercingly, without
drawing breath, like a tortured woman ; he banged
with hands and feet. The agony of his fear wrung
our hearts so terribly that we longed to abandon
him, to get out of that place deep as a well and
swaying like a tree, to get out of his hearing, back
on the poop where we could wait passively for
death in incomparable repose. We shouted to
him to " shut up, for God's sake." He redoubled
his cries. He must have fancied we could not
hear him. Probably he heard his own clamour but
faintly. We could picture him crouching on the
edge of the upper berth, letting out with both fists
at the wood, in the dark, and with his mouth wide
open for that unceasing cry. Those were loath-
some moments. A cloud driving across the sun
would darken the doorway menacingly. Every
movement of the ship was pain. We scrambled
about with no room to breathe, and felt frightfully
sick. The boatswain yelled down at us : " Bear a
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 83
hand ! Bear a hand ! Wc two will be washed
away from here directly if you ain't quick ! "
Three times a sea leaped over the high side and
flung bucketfuls of water on our heads. Then
Jimmy, startled by the shock, would stop his noise
for a moment — waiting for the ship to sink, per-
haps — and begin again, distressingly loud, as if
invigorated by the gust of fear. At the bottom
the nails lay in a layer several inches thick. It
was ghastly. Every nail in the world, not driven
in firmly somewhere, seemed to have found its way
into that carpenter's shop. There they were, of
all kinds, the remnants of stores from seven voy-
ages. Tin-tacks, copper tacks (sharp as needles),
pump nails, with big heads, like tiny iron mush-
rooms ; nails without any heads (horrible) ; French
nails polished and slim. They lay in a solid mass
more inabordable than a hedgehog. We hesitated,
yearning for a shovel, while Jimmy below us yelled
as though he had been flayed. Groaning, we dug
our fingers in, and, very much hurt, shook our
hands, scattering nails and drops of blood. We
passed up our hats full of assorted nails to the
boatswain, who, as if performing a mysterious and
appeasing rite, cast them wide upon a raging sea.
We got to the bulkhead at last. Those were
stout planks. She was a ship, well finished in
every detail — the " Narcissus " was. They were
the stoutest planks ever put into a ship's bulkhead
—-we thought — and fhcn we perceived that, in
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84 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
our hurry, we had sent all the tools overboard.
Absurd little Belfast wanted to break it down with
his own weight, and with both feet leaped straight
up like a springbok, cursing the Clyde shipwrights
for not scamping their work. Incidentally he re-
viled all North Britain, the rest of the earth, the
sea — and all his companions. He swore, as he
alighted heavily on his heels, that he would never,
never any more associate with any fool that " had n't
savee enough to know his knee from his elbow."
He managed by his thumping to scare the last
remnant of wits out of Jimmy. We could hear
the object of our exasperated solicitude darting to
and fro under the planks. He had cracked his
voice at last, and could only squeak miserably.
His back or else his head rubbed the planks, now
here, now there, in a puzzling manner. He
squeaked as he dodged the invisible blows. It was
more heartrending even than his yells. Suddenly
Archie produced a crowbar. He had kept it back ;
also a small hatchet. We howled with satisfaction.
He struck a mighty blow and small chips flew at
our eyes. The boatswain above shouted : " Look
out! Look out there. Don't kill the man.
Easy does it ! " Wamibo, maddened with excite-
ment, hung head down and insanely urged us:
"Hoo! Strook'im! Hoo ! Hoo!" We were
afraid he would fall in and kill one of us, and,
hurried'y, we entreated the boatswain to "shove
the blamed Finn overboard.'* Then, all together,
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 85
we yelled down at the planks : " Stand from
under! Get forward," and listened. We only
heard the deep hum and moan of the wind above
us, the mingled roar and hiss of the seas. The
ship, as if overcome with despair, wallowed life-
lessly, and our heads swam with that unnatural
motion. Belfast clamoured: "For the love of
God, Jimmy, where are ye ? . . . Knock ! Jimmy
darlint! . . . Knock! You bloody black beast!
Knock I " He was as quiet as a dead man inside a
grave ; and, like men standing above a grave, we
were on the verge of tears — but with vexation,
the strain, the fatigue ; with the great longing to
be done with it, to get away, and lie down to rest
somewhere where we could see our danger and
breathe. Archie shouted : " Gi'e me room ! "
We crouched behind him, guarding our heads, and
he struck time after time in the joint of planks.
They cracked. Suddenly the crowbar went half-
way in through a splintered oblong hole. It must
have missed Jimmy's head by less than an inch.
Archie withdrew it quickly, and that infamous
nigger rushed at the hole, put his lips to it, and
whispered " Help " in an almost extinct voice ; he
pressed his head to it, trying madly to get out
through that opening one inch wide and three
inches long. In our disturbed state we were
absolutely paralysed by his incredible action. It
seemed impossible to drive him away. Even
Archie at last lost his composure. " If ye don't
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86 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
clear oot I '11 drive the crowbar thro* your head,"
he shouted in a determined voice. He meant what
he said, and his earnestness seemed to make an
impression on Jimmy. He disappeared suddenly,
and we set to prising and tearing at the planks
with the eagerness of men trying to get at a
mortal enemy, and spurred by the desire to tear
him limb from limb. The wood split, cracked,
gave way. Belfast plunged in head and shoulders
and groped viciously. *' I *ve got *im ! Got *im ! "
he shouted. " Oh ! There ! . . . He 's gone ;
I Ve got *im ! . . . Pull at my legs ! . . . Pull ! "
Wamibo hooted unceasingly. The boatswain
shouted directions: ^^ Catch hold of his hair,
Belfast ; pull straight up, you two ! . . . Pull
fair ! " We pulled fair. We pulled Belfast out
with a jerk, and dropped him. with disgust. In a
sitting posture, purple-faced, he sobbed despair-
ingly : *' How can I hold on to 'is blooming short
wool ? " Suddenly Jimmy's head and shoulders
appeared. He stuck half-way, and with rolling
eyes foamed at our feet. We flew at him with
brutal impatience, we tore the shirt off his back, we
tugged at his ears, we panted over him ; and all at
once he came away in our hands as though some-
body had let go his legs. With the same move-
ment, without a pause, we swung him up. His
breath whistled, he kicked our upturned faces, he
grasped two pairs of arms above his head, and he
squirmed up with such precipitation that he seeded
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 87
positively to escape from our hands like a blad
der full of gas. Streaming with perspiration, wc
swarmed up the rope, and, coming into the blast oi
cold wind, gasped like men plunged into icy water.
With burning faces we shivered to the very marrow
of our bones. Never before had the gale seemed
to us more furious, the sea more mad, the sunshine
more merciless and mocking, and the position of
the ship more hopeless and appalling. Every
movement of her was ominous of the end of her
agony and of the beginning of ours. We staggered
away from the door, and, alarmed by a sudden roll,
fell down in a bunch. It appeared to us that the
side of the house was more smooth than glass and
more slippery than ice. There was nothing to
hang on to but a long brass hook used sometimes
to keep back an open door. Wamibo held on to it
and we held on to Wamibo, clutching our Jimmy.
He had completely collapsed now. He did not
seem to have the strength to close his hand. We
stuck to him blindly in our fear. We were not
afraid of Wamibo letting go (we remembered that
the brute was stronger than any three men in the
ship), but we were afraid of the hook giving way,
and we also believed that the ship had made up her
mind to turn over at last. But she did n't. A sea
swept over us. The boatswain spluttered : " Up
and away. There 's a lull. Away aft with you, or
we will all go to the devil here." We stood up
surrounding Jimmy. We begged him to hold up,
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88 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
to hold on, at least. He glared with his bulging
eyes, mute as a fish, and with all the stiffening
knocked out of him. He wouldn't stand; he
would n't even as much as clutch at our necks j he
was only a cold black skin loosely stuffed with soft
cotton wool ; his arms and legs swung jointless and
pliable ; his head rolled about ; the lower lip hung
down, enormous and heavy. We pressed round
him, bothered and dismayed; sheltering him we
swung here and there in a body ; and on the very
brink of eternity we tottered all together with con-
cealing and absurd gestures, like a lot of drunken
men embarrassed with a stolen corpse.
Something had to be done. We had to get him
aft. A rope was tied slack under his armpits, and,
reaching up at the risk of our lives, we hung him
on the foresheet cleat. He emitted no sound ; he
looked as ridiculously lamentable as a doll that had
lost half its sawdust, and we started on our perilous
journey over the main deck, dragging along with
care that pitiful, that limp, that hateful burden.
He was not very heavy, but had he weighed a ton
he could not have been more awkward to handle.
We literally passed him from hand to hand. Now
and then we had to hang him up on a handy belay-
ing pin, to draw a breath and re-form the line. Had
the pin broken he would have irretrievably gone
into the Southern Ocean, but he had to take his
chance of that j and after a little while, becoming
apparently aware of it, he groaned slightly, and with
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 89
a great effort whispered a few words. We listened
eagerly. He was reproaching us with our careless-
ness in letting him run such risks : " Now, after I
got myself out from there," he breathed out weakly.
'' There " was his cabin. And he got himself out.
We had nothing to do with it apparently ! . . . No
matter. . . . We went on and let him take his
chances, simply because we could not help it ; for
though at that time we hated him more than ever
— more than anything under heaven — we did not
want to lose him. We had so far saved him j and
it had become a personal matter between us and
the sea. We meant to stick to him. Had we (by
an incredible hypothesis) undergone similar toil and
trouble for an empty cask, that cask would have
become as precious to us as Jimmy was. More
precious, in fact, because we would have had no
reason to hate the cask. And we hated James
Wait. We could not get rid of the monstrous
suspicion that this astounding black man was sham*
ming sick, had been malingering heartlessly in the
face of our toil, of our scorn, of our patience —
and now was malingering in the face of our devo-
tion — in the face of death. Our vague and im-
perfect morality rose with disgust at his unmanly
lie. But he stuck to it manfully — amazingly.
No ! It could n't be. He was at all extremity.
His cantankerous temper was only the result of the
provoking invincibleness of that death he felt by
his side. Any man may be angry with such a
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90 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
masterful chum. But, then, what kind of men
were we — with our thoughts ! Indignation and
doubt grappled within us in a scuffle that trampled
upon the finest of our feelings. And we hated
him because of the suspicion ; we detested him
because of the doubt. We could not scorn him
safely — neither could we pity him without risk to
our dignity. So we hated him, and passed him
carefully from hand to hand. We cried, "Got
him ? " — " Yes. All right. Let go." And he
swung from one enemy to another, showing about
as much life as an old bolster would do. His eyes
made two narrow white slits in the black face. He
breathed slowly, and the air escaped through his
lips with a noise like the sound of bellows. We
reached the poop ladder at last, and, it being a com-
paratively safe place, we lay for a moment in an
exhausted heap to rest a little. He began to mut-
ter. We were always incurably anxious to hear
what he had to say. This time he mumbled peev-
ishly : " It took you some time to come. I began
to think the whole smart lot of you had been
washed overboard. What kept you back ? Hey ?
Funk ? ** We said nothing. With sighs we started
again to drag him up. The secret and ardent
desire of bur hearts was the desire to beat him
viciously with our fists about the head; and we
handled him as tenderly as though he had been
made of glass. . . .
The return on the poop was like the return o^
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 91
nranderers after many years amongst people marked
by the desolation of time. Eyes were turned slowly
in their sockets glancing at us. Faint murmurs
were heard. " Have you got *im after all ? " The
well-known faces looked strange and familiar; they
seemed faded and grimy ; they had a mingled ex-
pression of fatigue and eagerness. They seemed
to have become much thinner during our absence,
as if all these men had been starving for a long
time in their abandoned attitudes. The captain,
with a round turn of a rope on his wrist, and kneel-
ing on one knee, swung with a face cold and stiff;
but with living eyes he was still holding the ship
up, heeding no one, as if lost in the unearthly effort
of that endeavour. We fastened up James Wait
in a safe place. Mr. Baker scrambled along to
lend a hand. Mr. Creighton, on his back, and
very pale, muttered, " Well done," and gave us,
Jimmy and the sky, a scornful glance, then closed
his eyes slowly. Here and there a man stirred a
little, but most remained apathetic, in cramped
positions, muttering between shivers. The sun
was setting. A sun enormous, unclouded and red,
declining low as if bending down to look into their
faces. The wind whistled across long sunbeams
that, resplendent and cold, struck full on the dilated
pupils of staring eyes without making them wink.
The wisps of hair and the tangled beards were
grey with the salt of the sea. The faces were
tarthy, and the dark patches under the eyes ex-
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92 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
tended to the ears, smudged into the hollows of
sunken cheeks. The lips were livid and thin, and
when they moved it was with difficulty, as though
they had been glued to the teeth. Some grinned
sadly in the sunlight, shaking with cold. Others
were sad and still. Charley, subdued by the sud-
den disclosure of the insignificance of his youth,
darted fearful glances. The two smooth-faced
Norwegians resembled decrepid children, staring
stupidly. To leeward, on the edge of the horizon,
black seas leaped up towards the glowing sun. It
sank slowly, round and blazing, and the crests of
waves splashed on the edge of the luminous circle.
One of the Norwegians appeared to catch sight
of it, and after giving a violent start, began to speak.
His voice, startling the others, made them stir.
They moved their heads stiffly, or, turning with
difficulty, looked at him with surprise, with fear, or
in grave silence. He chattered at the setting sun,
nodding his head, while the big seas began to roll
across the crimson disc ; and over miles of turbu-
lent waters the shadows of high waves swept with
a running darkness the faces of men. A crested
roller broke with a loud hissing roar, and the sun,
as if put out, disappeared. The chattering voice
faltered, went out together with the light. There
were sighs. In the sudden lull that follows the
crash of a broken sea a man said wearily : " Here *s
that blooming Dutchnian gone off his chump." A
seaman, lashed by the middle, tapped the deck with
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 93
his open hand with unceasing quick flaps. In the
gathering greyness of twilight a bulky form was
seen rising aft, and began marching on all fours
with the movements of some big cautious beast.
It was Mr. Baker passing along the line of men.
He grunted encouragingly over every one, felt
their fastenings. Some, with half-open eyes, puffed
like men oppressed by heat j others mechanically
and in dreamy voices answered him : " Aye ! aye !
sir ! " He went from one to another grunting,
" Ough ! . . . See her through it yet ; " and un-
expectedly, with loud angry outbursts, blew up
Knowles for cutting oflF a long piece from the fall
of the relieving tackle. " Ough ! — Ashamed of
yourself — Relieving tackle — Don't you know
better ! — Ough ! — Able seaman ! Ough ! " The
lame man was crushed. He muttered : " Get som'-
think for a lashing for myself, sir." — "Ough!
Lashing — yourself. Are you a tinker or a sailor
— What ? Ough ! — May want that tackle directly
— Ough ! — More use to the ship than your lame
carcass. Ough ! — Keep it ! — Keep it, now
you 've done it." He crawled away slowly, mutter-
ing to himself about some men being " worse than
children." It had been a comforting row. JLow ex-
clamations were heard : " Hallo . . . Hallo . . ."
Those who had been painfully dozing asked with
convulsive starts : " What 's up ? . . . What is
it ? " The answers came with unexpected cheer-
fulness : " The mate is going bald-headed for lame
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94 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
Jack about something or other." . . . "No!" . .
'^ What 'as he done ? " Some one even chuckled.
It was like a whiff of hope, like a reminder of
safe days. Donkin, who had been stupefied with
fear, revived suddenly and began to shout : " 'Ear
'im; that's the way they tawlk to hus. Vy
donch 'ee 'it 'im — one ov yer ? 'It 'm. 'It 'im !
Comin' the mate hover hus. We are as good men
as 'ee ! We 're hall goin' to 'ell now. We 'ave
been starved in this rotten ship, an' now we 're
goin' to be drowned for them black-'earted bullies !
'It 'im ! " He shrieked in the deepening gloom,
he blubbered and sobbed, screaming : " 'It 'im !
'It 'im ! " The rage and fear of his disregarded
right to live tried the steadfastness of hearts more
than the menacing shadows of the night that
advanced through the unceasing clamour of the
gale. From aft Mr. Baker was heard : " Is one
of you men going to stop him — must I come
along ? "— " Shut up ! " . . . " Keep quiet ! " cried
various voices, exasperated, trembling with cold.
" You '11 get one across the mug from me directly,"
said an invisible seaman, in a weary tone ; '' I won't
let the mate have the trouble." He ceased and
lay still with the silence of despair. On the black
sky the stars, coming out, gleamed over an inky
sea that, speckled with foam, flashed back at them
the evanescent and pale light of a dazzling white-
ness born from the black turmoil of the waves.
Remote in the eternal calm they glittered hard and
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 95
cold above the uproar of the earth ; they surrounded
the vanquished and tormented ship on all sides :
more pitiless than the eyes of a triumphant mob,
and as unapproachable as the hearts of men.
The icy south wind howled exultingly under
the sombre splendour of the sky. The cold shook
the men with a resistless violence as though it had
tried to shake them to pieces. Short moans were
swept unheard off the stiff lips. Some complained
in mutters of " not feeling themselves below the
waist •, " while those who had closed their eyes,
imagined they had a block of ice on their chests.
Others, alarmed at not feeling any pain in their
fingers, beat the deck feebly with their hands —
obstinate and exhausted. Wamibo stared vacant
and dreamy. The Scandinavians kept on a mean-
ingless mutter through chattering teeth. The
spare Scotchmen, with determined efforts, kept
their lower jaws still. The West-country men
lay big and stolid in an invulnerable surliness.
A man yawned and swore in turns. Another
breathed with a rattle in his throat. Two elderly
hard-weather shellbacks, fast side by side, whis-
pered dismally to one another about the landlady
of a boarding-house in Sunderland, whom they
both knew. They extolled her motherliness and
her liberality ; they tried to talk about the joint of
beef and the big fire in the downstairs kitchen.
The words dying faintly on their lips, ended in
light sighs. A sudden voice cried into the cold
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96 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
night, " Oh Lord ! " No one changed his posi-
tion or took any notice of the cry. One or two
passed, with a repeated and vague gesture, their
hand over their faces, but most of them kept very
still. In the benumbed immobility of their bodies
they were excessively wearied by their thoughts,
that rushed with the rapidity and vividness of
dreams. Now and then, by an abrupt and start-
ling exclamation, they answered the weird hail of
some illusion ; then, again, in silence contemplated
the vision of known faces and familiar things.
They recalled the aspect of forgotten shipmates
and heard the voice of dead and gone skippers.
They remembered the noise of gaslit streets, the
steamy heat of tap-rooms, or the scorching sunshine
of calm days at sea.
Mr. Baker left his insecure place, and crawled,
with stoppages, along the poop. In the dark and
on all fours he resembled some carnivorous animal
prowling amongst corpses. At the break, propped
to windward of a stanchion, he looked down on
the main deck. It seemed to him that the ship
had a tendency to stand up a little more. The
wind had eased a little, he thought, but the sea
ran as high as ever. The waves foamed viciously,
and the lee side of the deck disappeared under a
hissing whiteness as of boiling milk, while the
rigging sang steadily with a deep vibrating note,
and, at every upward swing of the ship, the wind
rushed with a long-drawn clamour amongst the
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 97
spars. Mr. Baker watched very still. A man
near him began to make a blabbing noise with his
lips, all at once and very loud, as though the cold
had broken brutally through him. He went
on : " Ba — ^ba — ba — brrr — brr — ba — ba." — " Stop
that ! " cried Mr. Baker, groping in the dark.
" Stop it ! " He went on shaking the leg he
found under his hand. " What is it, sir ? "
called out Belfast, in the tone of a man awakened
suddenly ; " we are looking after that 'ere Jimmy."
— '' Are you ? Ough ! Don't make that row
then. Who 's that near you ? " — " It 's me —
the boatswain, sir," growled the West-country
man ; " we are trying to keep life in that poor
devil." — "Aye, aye ! " said Mr. Baker. " Do it
quietly, can't you ? " — " He wants us to hold him
up above the rail," went on the boatswain, with
irritation, " say's he can't breathe here under our
jackets." — " If we lift 'im, we drop 'im over-
board," said another voice, "we can't feel our
hands with cold." — "I don't care. I am chok-
ing ! " exclaimed James Wait in a clear tone. —
" Oh, no, my son," said the boatswain, desper-
ately, " you don't go till we all go on this fine
night." — " You will see yet many a wors %" said
Mr. Baker, cheerfully. — " It 's no child's play,
sir ! " answered the boatswain. " Some of us
further aft, here, are in a pretty bad way." —
" If the blamed sticks had been cut out of her she
would be running along on her bottom now like
7
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98 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
any decent ship, an* giv' us all a chance," said
some one, with a sigh. — '' The old man would n'l
have it . . . much he cares for us," whispered
another. — " Care for you ! " exclaimed Mr.
Baker, angrily. " Why should he care for you ?
Are you a lot of women passengers to be taken
care of? We are here to take care of the ship —
and some of you ain't up to that. Ough ! . . .
What have you done so very smart to be taken
care of? Ough ! . . . Some of you can't stand
a bit of a breeze without crying over it." —
" Come, sorr. We a*n*t so bad," protested Bel-
fast, in a voice shaken by shivers; "we ain't
. . . brrr ..." — " Again," shouted the mate
grabbing at the shadowy form j " again !
. . . Why, you're in your shirt! What have
you done ? " — "I 've put my oilskin and jacket
over that half-dead nayggur — and he says he
chokes," said Belfast, complainingly. — " You
would n't call me nigger if I was n't half dead,
you Irish beggar ! " boomed James Wait, vigor-
ously. — " You . . . brrr . . . you would n't be
white if you were ever so well ... I will
fight you . . . brrr ... in fine weather . . . brrr
. . . with one hand tied behind my back . . .
brrrrrr . . ." — "I don't want your rags — I want
air," gasped out the other faintly, as if suddenly
exhausted.
The sprays swept over whistling and pattering.
Men disturbed in their peaceful torpor by the pain
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 99
jf quarrelsome shouts, moaned, muttering curses.
Mr. Baker crawled off a little way to leeward where
a water-cask loomed up big, with something white
against it. " Is it you, Podmore ? " asked Mr.
Baker. He had to repeat the question twice before
the cook turned, coughing feebly. " Yes, sir.
I Ve been praying in my mind for a quick deliver-
ance 5 for I am prepared for any call. ... I "
" Look here, cook," interrupted Mr. Baker,
'' the men are perishing with cold." — " Cold ! "
said the cook, mournfuUy ; " they will be warm
enough before long." — " What ? " asked Mr.
Baker, looking along the deck into the faint sheen
of frothing water. — " They are a wicked lot,*'
continued the cook solemnly, but in an unsteaov
voice, " about as wicked as any ship's company in
this sinful world ! Now, I " — he trembled so
that he could hardly speak; his was an exposed
place, and in a cotton shirt, a thin pair of trousers,
and with his knees under his nose, he received,
quaking, the flicks of stinging, salt drops ; his voice
sounded exhausted — " now, I — any time. . . .
My eldest youngster, Mr. Baker ... a clever boy
. . . last Sunday on shore before this voyage he
would n't go to church, sir. Says I, ' You go and
clean yourself, or I '11 know the reason why ! *
What does he do ? . . . Pond, Mr. Baker — fell
into the pond in his best rig, sir ! . • • Accident ?
. . . ' Nothing will save you, fine scholar though
you are ! ' says I. . . . Accident ! . . . I whooped
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100 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
him, sir, till I could n't lift my arm. . . ." His
voice faltered. " I whopped 'im ! " he repeated,
rattling his teeth; then, after a while, let out a
mournful sound that was half a groan, half a snore.
Mr. Baker shook him by the shoulders. " Hey !
Cook ! Hold up, Podmore ! Tell me — is there
any fresh water in the galley tank ? The ship is
lying along less, I think 5 I would try to get forward.
A little water would do them good. Hallo ! Look
out ! Look out ! " The cook struggled. — " Not
you, sir — not you ! " He began to scramble to
windward. " Galley ! • . . my business ! " he
shouted. — " Cook 's going crazy now," said several
voices. He yelled : " Crazy, am I ? I am more
ready to die than any of you, officers incloosive —
there ! As long as she swims I will cook ! I will
get you coffee." — " Cook, ye are a gentleman ! "
cried Belfast. But the cook was already going
over the weather ladder. He stopped for a moment
to shout back on the poop : " As long as she
swims I will cook ! " and disappeared as though he
had gone overboard. The men who had heard
sent after him a cheer that sounded like a wail of
sick children. An hour or more afterwards some
one said distinctly : " He 's gone for good." —
" Very likely," assented the boatswain ; '' even in
fine weather he was as smart about the deck as a
milch-cow on her first voyage. We ought to go
and see." Nobody moved. As the hours dragged
slowly through the darkness, Mr. Baker crawled
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA loi
back and forth along the poop several times. Some
men fancied they had heard him exchange murmurs
with the master, but at that time the memories were
incomparably more vivid than anything actual, and
they were not certain whether the murmurs were
heard now or many years ago. They did not try
to find out. A mutter more or less did not matter.
It was too cold for curiosity, and almost for hope.
They could not spare a moment or a thought from
the great mental occupation of wishing to live.
And the desire of life kept them alive, apathetic
and enduring, under the cruel persistence of wind
and cold ; while the bestarred black dome of the
sky revolved slowly above the ship, that drifted,
bearing their patience and their suftering, through
the stormy solitude of the sea.
Huddled close to one another, they fancied them-
selves utterly alone. They heard sustained loud
noises, and again bore the pain of existence through
long hours of profound silence. In the night they
saw sunshine, felt warmth, and suddenly, with a
start, thought that the sun would never rise upon a
freezing world. Some heard laughter, listened to
songs ; others, near the end of the poop, could hear
loud human shrieks, and, opening their eyes, were
surprised to hear them still, though very faint, and
far away. The boatswain said : " Why, it 's
the cook, hailing from forward, I think." He
hardly believed his own words or recognised his
own voice. It was a long time \)efore the man
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102 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
next to him gave a sign of life. He punched
hard his other neighbour and said : " The cook 's
shouting ! " Many did not understand, others did
not care ; the majority further aft did not believe.
But the boatswain and another man had the pluck
to crawl away forward to see. They seemed to have
been gone for hours, and were very soon forgotten.
Then suddenly men that had been plunged in a
hopeless resignation became as if possessed with a
desire to hurt. They belaboured one another with
fists. In the darkness they struck persistently any-
thing soft they could feel near, and, with a greater
effort than for a shout, whispered excitedly:
" They Ve got some hot coffee. . . . Boss'en got
it." . . . "No! . . . Where?" . . . "It's
coming ! Cook made it." James Wait moaned.
Donkin Scrambled viciously, caring not where he
kicked, and anxious that the officers should have
none of it. It came in a pot, and they drank in
turns. It was hot, and while it blistered the greedy
palates, it seemed incredible. The men sighed out,
parting with the mug : " How *as he done it ? "
Some cried weakly : " Bully for you, doctor ! "
He had done it somehow. Afterwards Archie
declared that the thing was " meeraculous." For
many days we wondered, and it was the one ever-
interesting subject of conversation to the end of the
voyage. We asked the cook, in fine weather, how
he felt when he saw his stove " reared up on end."
We inquired, in the north-east trade and on serene
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 103
tvenings, whether he had to stand on his head to
put things right somewhat. We suggested he had
used his bread-board for a raft, and from there
comfortably had stoked his grate ; and we did our
best to conceal our admiration under the wit of fine
irony. He affirmed not to know anything about it,
rebuked our levity, declared himself, with solemn
animation, to have been the object of a special
mercy for the saving of our unholy lives. Funda-
mentally he was right, no doubt ; but he need not
have been so offensively positive about it — he need
not have hinted so often that it would have gone
hard with us had he not been there, meritorious and
pure, to receive the inspiration and the strength for
the work of grace. Had we been saved by his
recklessness or his agility, we could have at length
become reconciled to the fact ; but to admit our
obligation to anybody's virtue and holiness alone
was as difficult for us as for any other handful of
mankind. Like many benefactors of humanity,
the cook took himself too seriously, and reaped
the reward of irreverence. We were not un-
grateful, however. He remained heroic. His
saying — the saying of his life — became proverbial
in the mouth of men as are the sayings of conquer-
ors or sages. Later on, whenever one of us was
puzzled by a task and advised to relinquish it, he
would express his determination to persevere and
to succeed by the words * " As long as she swims
1 will cookr'
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104 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
The hot drink helped us through the bleak
hours that precede the dawn. The sky low by
the horizon took on the delicate tints of pink and
yellow like the inside of a rare shell. And higher,
where it glowed with a pearly sheen, a small black
cloud appeared, like a forgotten fragment of the
night set in a border of dazzling gold. The
beams of light skipped on the crests of waves.
The eyes of men turned to the eastward. The
sunlight flooded their weary faces. They were
giving themselves up to fatigue as though they
had done for ever with their work. On Single-
ton's black oilskin coat the dried salt glistened like
hoar frost. He hung on by the wheel, with open
and lifeless eyes. Captain Allistoun, unblinking,
faced the rising sun. His lips stirred, opened foi
the first time in twenty-four hours, and with a
fresh firm voice he cried : " Wear ship ! "
The commanding sharp tones made all these
torpid men start like a sudden flick of a whip.
Then again, motionless where they lay, the force
of habit made some of them repeat the order
in hardly audible murmurs. Captain Allistoun
glanced down at his crew, and several, with fum-
bling fingers and hopeless movements, tried to
cast themselves adrift. He repeated impatiently:
"Wear ship. Now then, Mr. Baker, get the
men along. What 's the matter with them ? " —
" Wear ship. Do you hear there ? Wear ship ! "
♦hundered out the boatswain suddenly. His voice
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 105
seemed to break through a deadly spell. Men
began to stir and crawl. " I want the fore-top-
mast staysail run up smartly," said the master,
very loudly 5 " if you can't manage it standing
up you must do it lying down — that 's all. Bear
a hand ! " — " Come along ! Let 's give the old
girl a chance," urged the boatswain. — " Aye ! aye !
Wear ship ! " exclaimed quavering voices. The
forecastle men, with reluctant faces, prepared to
go forward. Mr. Baker pushed ahead grunting
on all fours to show the way, and they followed
him over the break. The others lay still with a
vile hope in their hearts of not being required to
move till they got saved or drowned in peace.
After some time they could be seen forward
appearing on the forecastle head, one by one in
unsafe attitudes; hanging on to the rails; clam-
bering over the anchors ; embracing the cross-head
of the windlass or hugging the fore-capstan.
They were restless with strange exertions, waved
their arms, knelt, lay flat down, staggered up,
seemed to strive their hardest to go overboard.
Suddenly a small white piece of canvas fluttered
amongst them, grew larger, beating. Its narrow
head rose in jerks — and at last it stood distended
and triangular in the sunshine. " They have done
it ! " cried the voices aft. Captain Allistoun let
go the rope he had round his wrist and rolled to
leeward headlong. He could be seen casting the
iee main braces off the pins while the backwash of
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io6 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
waves splashed over him. "Square the main
yard ! " he shouted up to us — who stared at him
in wonder. We hesitated to stir. "The main
brace, men. Haul ! haul anyhow ! Lay on your
backs and haul ! " he screeched, half drowned
down there. We did not believe we could move
the main yard, but the strongest and the less dis-
couraged tried to execute the order. Others
assisted half-heartedly. Singleton's eyes blazed
suddenly as he took a fresh grip of the spokes.
Captain Allistoun fought his way up to windward.
" Haul, men ! Try to move it ! Haul, and help
the ship." His hard face worked, suffused and furi-
ous. " Is she going off. Singleton ? " he cried. —
" Not a move yet, sir," croaked the old seaman in
a horribly hoarse voice. — "Watch the helm, Sin-
gleton," spluttered the master. " Haul, men !
Have you no more strength than rats? Haul, and
earn your salt." Mr. Creighton, on his back,
with a swollen leg and a face as white as a piece
of paper, blinked his eyes ; his bluish lips twitched.
In the wild scramble men grabbed at him, crawled
over his hurt leg, knelt on his chest. He kept
perfectly still, setting his teeth without a moan,
without a sigh. The master's ardour, the cries of
that silent man inspired us. We hauled and hung
in bunches on the rope. We heard him say with
violence to Donkin, who sprawled abjectly on his
stomach : " I will brain you with this belaying pin
if you don't catch hold of the brace;" and that
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 107
victim of men's injustice, cowardly and cheeky,
whimpered : " Are you goin' ter murder hus now ? '*
while with sudden desperation he gripped the rope*
Men sighed, shouted, hissed meaningless words,
groaned. The yards moved, came slowly square
against the wind, that hummed loudly on the yard-
arms. '' Going off, sir," shouted Singleton, " she 's
just started." "Catch a turn with that brace.
Catch a turn ! " clamoured the master. Mr.
Creighton, nearly suffocated and unable to move,
made a mighty effort, and with his left hand man-
aged to nip the rope. " All fast ! " cried some
one. He closed his eyes as if going off into a
swoon, while huddled together about the brace we
watched with scared looks what the ship would do
now.
She went off slowly as though she had been
weary and disheartened like the men she carried.
She paid off very gradually, making us hold our
breath till we choked, and as soon as she had
brought the wind abaft the beam she started to
move, and fluttered our hearts. It was awful to
see her, nearly overturned, begin to gather way
and drag her submerged side through the water.
The deadeyes of the rigging churned the breaking
seas. The lower half of the deck was full of
mad whirlpools and eddies ; and the long line of
the lee rail could be seen showing black now and
then in the swirls of a field of foam as dazzling
and white as a field of snow. The wind sang
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io8 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
shrilly amongst the spars ; and at every slight lurch
we expected her to slip to the bottom sideways
from under our backs. When dead before it she
made the first distinct attempt to stand up, and we
encouraged her with a feeble and discordant howl.
A great sea came running up aft and hung for a
moment over us with a curling top ; then crashed
down under the counter and spread out on both
sides into a great sheet of bursting froth. Above
its fierce hiss we heard Singleton's croak : " She
is steering ! " He had both his feet now planted
firmly on the grating, and the wheel spun fast as
he eased the helm. — " Bring the wind on the
port quarter and steady her ! " called out the mas-
ter, staggering to his feet, the first man up from
amongst our prostrate heap. One or two screamed
with excitement : " She rises ! " Far away for-
ward, Mr. Baker and three others were seen erect
and black on the clear sky, lifting their arms, and
with open mouths as though they had been shout-
ing all together. The ship trembled, trying to lift
her side, lurched back, seemed to give up with a
nerveless dip, and suddenly with an unexpected
jerk swung violently to windward, as though she
had torn herself out from a deadly grasp. The
whole immense volume of water, lifted by her deck,
was thrown bodily across to starboard. Loud
cracks were heard. Iron ports breaking open
thundered with ringing blows. The water topped
over the starboard rail with the rush of a river
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 109
falling over a dam. The sea on deck, and the
seas on every side of her, mingled together in a
deafening roar. She rolled violently. We got up
and were helplessly run or flung about from side
to side. Men, rolling over and over, yelled :
" The house will go ! " — « She clears herself! "
Lifted by a towering sea she ran along with it for
a moment, spouting thick streams of water through
every opening of her wounded sides. The lee
braces having been carried away or washed oflF the
pins, all the ponderous yards on the fore swung
from side to side and with appalling rapidity at
every roll. The men forward were seen crouch-
ing here and there with fearful glances upwards at
the enormous spars that whirled about over their
heads. The torn canvas and the ends of biokeii
gear streamed in the wind like wisps of hair.
Through the clear sunshine, over the flashing tur-
moil and uproar of the seas, the ship ran blindly,
dishevelled and headlong, as if fleeing for her life j
and on the poop we spun, we tottered about, dis-
tracted and noisy. We all spoke at once in a thin
babble ; we had the aspect of invalids and the ges-
tures of maniacs. Eyes shone, large and haggard,
in smiling, meagre faces that seemed to have been
dusted over with powdered chalk. We stamped,
clapped our hands, feeling ready to jump and do
anything ; but in reality hardly able to keep on our
feet. Captain Allistoun, hard and slim, gesticu-
lated madly from the poop at Mr. Baker : " Steady
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110 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
these fore-yards ! Steady them the best you can ! '*
On the main deck, men excited by his cries,
splashed, dashing aimlessly here and there with the
foam swirling up to their waists. Apart, far aft,
and alone by the helm, old Singleton had delib-
erately tucked his white beard under the top button
of his glistening coat. Swaying upon the din and
tumult of the seas, with the whole battered length
of the ship launched forward in a rolling rush
before his steady old eyes, he stood rigidly still,
forgotten by all, and with an attentive face. In
front of his erect figure only the two arms moved
crosswise with a swift and sudden readiness, to
check or urge again the rapid stir of circKiig
spokes. He steered with caie.
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA iii
IV
On men reprieved by its disdainful mercy, the
immortal sea confers in its justice the full privilege
of desired unrest. Through the perfect wisdom
of its grace they are not permitted to meditate at
ease upon the complicated and acrid savour of exist-
ence, lest they should remember and, perchance,
regret the reward of a cup of inspiring bitterness,
tasted so often, and so often withdrawn from be-
fore their stiffening but reluctant lips. They must
without pause justify their life to the eternal pity
that commands toil to be hard and unceasing, from
sunrise to sunset, from sunset to sunrise: till the
weary succession of nights and days tainted by the
obstinate clamour of sages, demanding bliss and
an empty heaven, is redeemed at last by the vast
silence of pain and labour, by the dumb fear and
the dumb courage of men obscure, forgetful, and
enduring.
The master and Mr. Baker coming face to face
stared for a moment, with the intense and amazed
looks of men meeting unexpectedly after years
of trouble. Their voices were gone, and they
whispered desperately at one another. " Any one
missing ? " asked Captain Allistoun. — " No. All
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iia THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
there." — " Anybody hurt ? " — " Only the second
mate." — " I will look after him directly. We 're
lucky." — " Very," articulated Mr. Baker, faintly.
He gripped the rail and rolled bloodshot eyes.
The little grey man made an effort to raise his
voice above a dull mutter, and fixed his chief mate
with a cold gaze, piercing like a dart. " Get sail on
the ship," he said, speaking authoritatively, and with
an inflexible snap of his thin lips. ^^ Get sail on her
as soon as you can. This is a fair wind. At
once, sir. — Don't give the men time to feel them-
selves. They will get done up and stiflF, and we
will never ... We must get her along now "...
He reeled to a long heavy roll ; the rail dipped into
the glancing, hissing water. He caught a shroud,
swung helplessly against the mate ..." now we
have a fair wind at last. — Make — sail." His
head rolled from shoulder to shoulder. His eyelids
began to beat rapidly. " And the pumps — pumps,
Mr. Baker." He peered as though the face within
a foot of his eyes had been half a mile oflF. "Keep
the men on the move to — to get her along,"
he mumbled in a drowsy tone, like a man going
off into a doze. He pulled himself together sud-
denly : " Must n't stand. Won't do," he said with
a painful attempt at a smile. He let go his hold,
and, propelled by the dip of the ship, ran aft un-
willingly, with small steps, till he brought up
against the binnacle stand. Hanging on there he
looked up in an objectless manner at Singleton,
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 113
who, unheeding him, watched anxiously the end
of the jib-boom. " Steering gear works all right ? "
he asked. There was a noise in the old sea-
man's throat, as though the words had been rat-
tling there together before they could come out.
" Steers . . . like a little boat," he said, at last,
with hoarse tenderness, without giving the master
as much as half a glance — then, watchfully, spun
the wheel down, steadied, flung it back again.
Captain Allistoun tore himself away from the de-
light of leaning against the binnacle, and began to
walk the poop, swaying and reeling to preserve
his balance. . . .
The pump-rods, clanking, stamped in short
jumps, while the fly-wheels turned smoothly, with
great speed, at the foot of the mainmast, flinging
back and forth with a regular impetuosity two limp
clusters of men clinging to the handles. They
abandoned themselves, swaying from the hip with
twitching faces and stony eyes. The carpenter,
sounding from time to time, exclaimed mechani-
cally : " Shake her up ! Keep her going ! " Mr.
Baker could not speak, but found his voice to
shout; and under the goad of his objurgations, men
looked to the lashings, dragged out new sails ; and
thinking themselves unable to move, carried heavy
blocks aloft — overhauled the gear. They went
up the rigging with faltering and desperate eflForts.
Their heads swam as they shifted their hold, stepped
blindly on the yards like men in the darkj oJ
8
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114 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
trusted themselves to the first rope to hand with
the negligence of exhausted strength. The nar-
row escapes from &lls did not disturb the languid
beat of their hearts ; the roar of the seas seething
far below them sounded continuous and faint like
an indistinct noise from another world : the wind
filled their eyes with tears, and with heavy gusts
tried to push them oflF from where they swayed in '
insecure positions. With streaming faces and blow-
ing hair they flew up and down between sky and
water, bestriding the ends of yard-arms, crouch*
ing on foot-ropes, embracing lifts to have their
hands free, or standing up against chain ties. Their
thoughts floated vaguely between the desire of rest
and the desire of life, while their stiffened fingers
cast off head-earrings, fumbled for knives, or held
with tenacious grip against the violent shocks of
beating canvas. They glared savagely at one an-
other, made frantic signs with one hand while they
held their life in the other, looked down on the nar-
row strip of flooded deck, shouted along to leeward :
" Light-to ?"...« Haul out ! " . . . " Make
fast ! '* Their lips moved, their eyes started, furi-
ous and eager with the desire to be understood, but
the wind tossed their words unheard upon the dis-
turbed sea. In an unendurable and unending strain
they worked like men driven by a merciless dream
to toil in an atmosphere of ice or flame. They
burnt and shivered in turns. Their eyeballs
smarted as if in the smoke of a conflagration ; theii
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 115
heads were ready to burst with every shout. Hard
fingers seemed to grip their throats. At every roll
they thought : " Now I must let go. It will shake
us all oflFj" and thrown about aloft, they cried
wildly : " Look out there — catch the end.'* . . .
"Reeve clear." . . . "Turn this block. . . ."
They nodded desperately; shook infuriated faces,
" No ! No ! From down up.'* They seemed
to hate one another with a deadly hate. The long-
ing to be done with it all gnawed their breasts, and
the wish to do things well was a burning pain.
They cursed their fate, contemned their life, and
wasted their breath in deadly imprecations upon one
another. The sailmaker, with his bald head bared,
worked feverishly, forgetting his intimacy with so
many admirals. The boatswain, climbing up with
marlinspikes and bunches of spunyarn rovings, or
kneeling on the yard and ready to take a turn with
the midship-stop, had acute and fleeting visions of
his old woman and the youngsters in a moorland
village. Mr. Baker, feeling very weak, tottered
here and there, grunting and inflexible, like a man
of iron. He waylaid those who, coming from aloft,
stood gasping for breath. He ordered, encouraged,
scolded. " Now then — to the main topsail now !
Tally on to that gantline. Don't stand about
there ! " — " Is there no rest for us ? " muttered
voices. He spun round fiercely, with a sinking
heart. "No! No rest till the work is done.
Work till you drop. That *s what you 're here
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ii6 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
for." A bowed seaman at his elbow gave a short
laugh. "Do or die," he croaked bitterly, then
spat into his broad palms, swung up his long arms,
and grasping the rope high above his head sent out
a mournful, wailing cry for a pull all together. A
sea boarded the quarter-deck and sent the whole lot
sprawling to leeward. Caps, handspikes floated.
Clenched hands, kicking legs, with here and there
a spluttering face, stuck out of the white hiss of
foaming water. Mr. Baker, knocked down with
the rest, screamed : " Don't let go that rope !
Hold on to it ! Hold ! " And sorely bruised by
the brutal fling, they held on to it, as though it
had been the fortune of their life. The ship ran,
rolling heavily, and the topping crests glanced past
port and starboard flashing their white heads.
Pumps were freed. Braces were rove. The three
topsails and foresail were set. She spurted faster
over the water, outpacing the swift rush of waves.
The menacing thunder of distanced seas rose be-
hind her — filled the air with the tremendous vibra-
tions of its voice. And devastated, battered, and
wounded she drove foaming to the northward, as
though inspired by the courage of a high en-
deavour. . . .
The forecastle was a place of damp desolation.
They looked at their dwelling with dismay. It
was slimy, dripping; it hummed hollow with the
wind, and was strewn with shapeless wreckage
like a half-tide cavern in a rocky and exposed
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 117
coast. Many had lost all they had In the world,
but most of the starboard watch had preserved
their chests j thin streams of water trickled out of
them, however. The beds were soaked ; the blan-
kets spread out and saved by some nail squashed
under foot. They dragged wet rags from evil-
smelling corners, and, wringing the water out,
recognised their property. Some smiled stiffly.
Others looked round blank and mute. There
were cries of joy over old waistcoats, and groans
of sorrow over shapeless things found amongst
the black splinters of smashed bed boards. One
lamp was discovered jammed under the bowsprit.
Charley whimpered a little. Knowles stumped
here and there, sniffing, examining dark places
for salvage. He poured dirty water out of a boot,
and was concerned to find the owner. Those
who, overwhelmed by their losses, sat on the
forepeak hatch, remained elbows on knees, and,
with a fist against each cheek, disdained to look
up. He pushed it under their noses. " Here 's a
good boot. Yours ? " They snarled : " No — get
out." One snapped at him : " Take it to hell out
of this." He seemed surprised. " Why ? It 's
a good boot ; " but remembering suddenly that he
had lost every stitch of his clothing, he dropped
his find and began to swear. In the dim light
cursing voices clashed. A man came in and,
dropping his arms, stood still, repeating from the
doorstep : '< Here *s a bloomin' old go ! Here 's a
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ii8 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
bloomin' old go ! '* A few rooted anxiously in
flooded chests for tobacco. They breathed hard,
clamoured with heads down : " Look at that,
Jack ?**..." Here ! Sam ! Here 's my shore-
going rig spoilt for ever." One blasphemed tear-
fully holding up a pair of dripping trousers. No
one looked at him. The cat came out from some-
where. He had an ovation. They snatched him
from hand to hand, caressed him in a murmur
of pet names. They wondered where he had
" weathered it out ; ** disputed about it. A squab-
bling argument began. Two men came in with
a bucket of fresh water, and all crowded round
it ; but Tom, lean and mewing, came up with
every hair astir and had the first drink. A couple
of men went aft for oil and biscuits.
Then in the yellow light and in the intervals of
mopping the deck they crunched hard bread, ar-
ranging to "worry through somehow." Men
chummed as to beds. Turns were settled for
wearing boots and having the use of oilskin coats.
They called one another "old man " and " sonny"
in cheery voices. Friendly slaps resounded.
Jokes were shouted. One or two stretched on
the wet deck, slept with heads pillowed on their
bent arms, and several, sitting on the hatch,
smoked. Their weary faces appeared through a
thin blue haze, pacified and with sparkling eyes.
The boatswain put his head through the door.
*' Relieve the wheel, one of you," he shouted
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 119
inside, — " it *s six, Blamme if that old Singleton
hasn't been there more'n thirty hours. You
are a fine lot." He slammed the door again.
" Mate's watch on deck," said some one. — " Hey,
Donkin, it 's your relief ! " shouted three or four
together. He had crawled into an empty bunk
and on wet planks lay still. " Donkin, your
wheel." He made no sound. " Donkin *s dead,"
guffawed some one. — " Sell 'is bloom in' clothes,'*
shouted another. — "Donkin, if ye don't go to the
bloomin' wheel they will sell your clothes — d' ye
hear ? " jeered a third. He groaned from his
dark hole. He complained about pains in all his
bones, he whimpered pitifully. '' He won't go,"
exclaimed a contemptuous voice 5 " your turn,
Davies." The young seaman rose painfully squar-
ing his shoulders. Donkin stuck his head out,
and it appeared in the yellow light, fragile and
ghastly. " I will giv' yer a pound of tobaccer,"
he whined in a conciliating voice, " so soon as
I draw it from haft. I will — s'elp me . . ."
Davies swung his arm backhanded, and the head
vanished. " I '11 go," he said, " but you will pay
for it." He walked unsteady but resolute to the
door. " So I will," yelped Donkin, popping out
behind him. " So I will — s'elp me ... a
pound . . . three bob they chawrge." Davies
flung the door open. "You will pay my price
... in fine weather," he shouted over his shoul-
der. One of the men unbuttoned his wet coat
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I20 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
rapidly, threw it at his head. " Here, Taffy —
take that, you thief! " — " Thank you ! " he cried
from the darkness above the swish of rolling
Water. He could be heard splashing ; a sea came
on board with a thump. " He 's got his bath
already," remarked a grim shellback. — " Aye,
aye ! " grunted others. Then, after a long silence,
Wamibo made strange noises. " Hallo, what 's
up with you ? " said some one grumpily. — " He
says he would have gone for Davy," explained
Archie, who was the Finn's interpreter generally. —
" I believe him ! " cried voices. ..." Never
mind, Dutchy. . . . You '11 do, muddlehead. • • •
Your turn will come soon enough. . . . You don't
know when ye 're well off"." They ceased, and all
together turned their faces to the door. Singleton
stepped in, made two paces, and stood swaying
slightly. The sea hissed, flowed roaring past the
bows, and the forecastle trembled, full of a deep
rumour ; the lamp flared, swinging like a pendulum.
He looked with a dreamy and puzzled stare, as
though he could not distinguish the still men from
their restless shadows. There were awestruck
murmurs : " Hallo, hallo !"..." How does it
look outside now. Singleton ? " Those who sat
on the hatch lifted their eyes in silence, and the
next oldest seaman in the ship (those two under-
stood one another, though they hardly exchanged
three words in a day) gazed up at his friend atten-
tivelv for a moment, then taking a short clay pipe
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 121
out of his mouth, offered it without a word.
Singleton put out his arm towards it, missed, stag-
gered, and suddenly fell forward, crashing down,
stiff and headlong like an uprooted tree. There
was a swift rush. Men pushed, crying : " He 's
done!" • . • "Turn him over!" • • • "Stand
clear there ! '* Under a crowd of startled facer
bending over him he lay on his back, staring up-
wards in a continuous and intolerable manner.
In the breathless silence of a general consterna-
tion, he said in a grating murmur : " I am all
right," and clutched with his hands. They helped
him up. He mumbled despondently : " I am get-
ting old . . . old." — "Not you," cried Belfast,
with ready tact. Supported on all sides, he hung
his head. " Are you better ? " they asked. He
glared at them from under his eyebrows with large
black eyes, spreading over his chest the bushy
whiteness of a beard long and thick. "Old I
old ! " he repeated sternly. Helped along, he
reached his bunk. There was in it a slimy soft
heap of something that smelt, like does at dead
low water a muddy foreshore. It was his soaked
straw bed. With a convulsive effort he pitched
himself on it, and in the darkness of the narrow
place could be heard growling angrily, like an irri-
tated and savage animal uneasy in its den : " Bit
of breeze . . . small thing . . . can't stand up
. . . old!" He slept at last. He breathed
heavily, high-booted, sou'wester on head, and hi*
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122 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
oilskin clothes rustled, when with a deep sighing
groan he turned over. Men conversed about him
in quiet concerned whispers. " This will break
'im up.** • . . " Strong as a horse.'* ..." Aye.
But he ain*t what he used to be.*' In sad mur-
murs they gave him up. Yet at midnight he
turned out to duty as if nothing had been the
matter, and answered to his name with a mourn-
ful " Here ! '* He brooded alone more than ever,
in an impenetrable silence and with a saddened
face. For many years he had heard himself
called " Old Singleton," and had serenely ac-
cepted the qualification, taking it as a tribute of
respect due to a man who through half a century
had measured his strength against the favours and
the rages of the sea. He had never given a thought
to his mortal self. He lived unscathed, as though
he had been indestructible, surrendering to all the
temptations, weathering many gales. He had
panted in sunshine, shivered in the cold ; suffered
hunger, thirst, debauch; passed through many
trials — known all the furies. Old ! It seemed
to him he was broken at last. And like a man
bound treacherously while he sleeps, he woke up
fettered by the long chain of disregarded years.
He had to take up at once the burden of all his
existence, and found it almost too heavy for
his strength. Old ! He moved his arms, shook his
head, felt his limbs. Getting old • . . and then ?
He looked upon the immortal sea with the awak«
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 123
ened and groping perception of its heartless might ;
he saw it unchanged, black and foaming under the
eternal scrutiny of the stars ; he heard its impatient
voice calling for him out of a pitiless vastness full
of unrest, of turmoil, and of terror. He looked
afar upon it, and he saw an immensity tormented
and blind, moaning and furious, that claimed all
the days of his tenacious life, and, when life was
over, would claim the worn-out body of its slave.
This was the last of the breeze. It veered
quickly, changed to a black south-easter, and blew
itself out, giving the ship a famous shove to the
northward into the joyous sunshine of the trade.
Rapid and white she ran homewards in a straight
path, under a blue sky and upon the plain of
a blue sea. She carried Singleton's completed
wisdom, Donkin's delicate susceptibilities, and the
conceited folly of us all. The hours of ineffective
turmoil were forgotten; the fear and anguish of
these dark moments were never mentioned in the
glowing peace of fine days. Yet from that time
our life seemed to start afresh as though we had
died and had been resuscitated. All the first part
of the voyage, the Indian Ocean on the other side
of the Cape, all that was lost in a haze, like an
ineradicable suspicion of some previous existence.
It had ended — then there were blank hours: a
livid blur — and again we lived ! Singleton was
possessed of sinister truth; Mr, Creighton of a
damaged leg; the cook of fame — and shamefully
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124 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
abused the opportunities of his distinction. Donkin
had an added grievance. He went about repeat-
ing with insistence : " 'E said *e would brain
me — did yer 'ear ? They hare goin' to murder
hus now for the least little thing." We began at
last to think it was rather awful. And we were
conceited ! We boasted of our pluck, of our
capacity for work, of our energy. We remem-
bered honourable episodes : our devotion, our in-
domitable perseverance — and were proud of them
as though they had been the outcome of our
unaided impulses. We remembered our danger,
our toil — and conveniently forgot our horrible
scare. We decried our officers — who had done
nothing — and listened to the fascinating Donkin.
His care for our rights, his disinterested concern
for our dignity, were not discouraged by the in-
variable contumely of our words, by the disdain
of our looks. Our contempt for him was un-
bounded — and we could not but listen with interest
to that consummate artist. He told us we were
good men — a " bloomin', condemned lot of good
men." Who thanked us ? Who took any notice
of our wrongs ? Did n't we lead a " dorg's loife
for two poun' ten a month " ? Did we think that
miserable pay enough to compensate us for the
risk to our lives and for the loss of our clothes ?
" We Ve lost hevery rag ! " he cried. He made
us forget that he, at any rate, had lost nothing of
his own. The younger men listened^ thinking —
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 125
this 'ere Donkin 's a long-headed chap, though no
kind of man, anyhow. The Scandinavians were
frightened at his audacities j Wamibo did not
understand; and the older seamen thoughtfully
nodded their heads, making the thin gold ear-rings
glitter in the fleshy lobes of hairy ears. Severe,
sunburnt faces were propped meditatively on tat-
tooed forearms. Veined, brown fists held in
their knotted grip the dirty white clay of smoul-
dering pipes. They listened, impenetrable, broad-
backed, with bent shoulders, and in grim silence.
He talked with ardour, despised and irrefutable.
His picturesque and filthy loquacity flowed like a
troubled stream from a poisoned source. His
beady little eyes danced, glancing right and left,
ever on the watch for the approach of an officer.
Sometimes Mr. Baker going forward to take a
look at the head sheets would roll with his un-
couth gait through the sudden stillness of the men;
or Mr. Creighton limped along, smooth-faced,
youthful, and more stern than ever, piercing oui
short silence with a keen glance of his clear eyes.
Behind his back Donkin would begin again dart-
ing stealthy, sidelong looks. — " 'Ere 's one of 'em.
Some of yer 'as made 'im fast that day. Much
thanks yer got for hit. Ain't *ee a-drivin' yer
wusse'n hever ? . . . Let *im slip hoverboard. . . .
Vy not ? It would 'ave been less trouble. Vy
not ? " He advanced confidentially, backed away
with ^reat effect; he whispered, he screamed,
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126 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
waved his miserable arms no thicker than pipe-
stems — stretched his lean neck — spluttered —
squinted. In the pauses of his impassioned ora-
tions the wind sighed quietly aloft, the calm sea
unheeded murmured in a warning whisper along
the ship's side. We abominated the creature and
could not deny the luminous truth of his conten-
tions. It was all so obvious. We were indubi-
tably good men ; our deserts were great and our
pay small. Through our exertions we had saved
the ship and the skipper would get the credit of
it. What had he done? we wanted to know.
Donkin asked : " What 'ee could do without
hus ? " and we could not answer. We were op-
pressed by the injustice of the world, surprised to
perceive how long we had lived under its burden
without realising our unfortunate state, annoyed
by the uneasy suspicion of our undiscerning
stupidity. Donkin assured us it was all our
'' good 'eartedness," but we would not be con-
soled by such shallow sophistry. We were men
enough to courageously admit to ourselves our
intellectual shortcomings; though from that time
we refrained from kicking him, tweaking his nose,
or from accidentally knocking him about, which
last, after we had weathered the Cape, had been
rather a popular amusement. Davies ceased to
talk at him provokingly about black eyes and flat-
tened noses. Charley, much subdued since the
gale, did not jeer at him. Knowles deferentiallF
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 127
and with a crafty air propounded questions such
as : ^^ Could we all have the same grub as the
mates ? Could we all stop ashore till we got it ?
What would be the next thing to try for if we
got that ? " He answered readily with contempt-
uous certitude ; he strutted with assurance in
clothes that were much too big for him as though
he had tried to disguise himself. These were
Jimmy's clothes mostly — though he would accept
anything from anybody ; but nobody, except
Jimmy, had anything to spare. His devotion to
Jimmy was unbounded. He was for ever dodg-
ing in the little cabin, ministering to Jimmy's
wants, humoring his whims, submitting to his
exacting peevishness, often laughing with him.
Nothing could keep him away from the pious
work of visiting the sick, especially when there
was some heavy hauling to be done on deck.
Mr. Baker had on two occasions jerked him out
from there by the scruff of the neck to our in-
expressible scandal. Was a sick chap to be left
without attendance ? Were we to be ill-used for
attending a shipmate ? — " What ? " growled Mr.
Baker, turning menacingly at the mutter, and the
whole half-circle like one man stepped back a
pace. "Set the topmast stunsail. Away aloft,
Donkin, overhaul the gear," ordered the mate
inflexibly. " Fetch the sail along; bend the down-
haul clear. Bear a hand." Then, the sail set,
he would go slowly aft and stand looking at the
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128 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
compass for a long time, careworn, pensive, and
breathing hard as if stifled by the taint of unac-
countable ill-will that pervaded the ship. " What 's
up amongst them ? '* he thought. " Can't make
out this hanging back and growling. A good
crowd, too, as they go nowadays." On deck the
men exchanged bitter words, suggested by a silly
exasperation against something unjust and irre-
mediable that would not be denied, and would
whisper into their ears long after Donkin had
ceased speaking. Our little world went on its
curved and unswerving path carrying a discon-
tented and aspiring population. They found
comfort of a gloomy kind in an interminable
and conscientious analysis of their unappreciated
worth ; and inspired by Donkin's hopeful doc-
trines they dreamed enthusiastically of the time
when every lonely ship would travel over a serene
sea, manned by a wealthy and well-fed crew of
satisfied skippers.
It looked as if it would be a long passage. The
south-east trades, light and unsteady, were left
behind ; and then, on the equator and under a
low grey sky, the ship, in close heat, floated upon
a smooth sea that resembled a sheet of ground
glass. Thunder squalls hung on the horizon,
circled round the ship, far oflF and growling
angrily, like a troop of wild beasts afraid to
charge home. The invisible sun, sweeping above
the upright masts, made on the clouds a blurred
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 129
tain of rayless light, and a similar patch of faded
radiance kept pace with it from east to west over
the unglittering level of the waters. At night,
through the impenetrable darkness of earth and
heaven, broad sheets of flame waved noiselessly ;
and for half a second the becalmed craft stood out
with its masts and rigging, with every sail and
every rope distinct and black in the centre of a
fiery outburst, like a charred ship enclosed in a
globe of fire. And, again, for long hours she re-
mained lost in a vast universe of night and silence
where gentle sighs wandering here and there like
forlorn souls, made the still sails flutter as in
sudden fear, and the ripple of a beshrouded ocean
whisper its compassion afar — in a voice mournful,
immense, and faint. . . .
When the lamp was put out, and through the
door thrown wide open, Jimmy, turning on his
pillow, could see vanishing beyond the straight
line of top-gallant rail, the quick, repeated visions
of a fabulous world made up of leaping fire and
sleeping water. The lightning gleamed in his big
sad eyes that seemed in a red flicker to burn them-
selves out in his black face, and then he would lay
blinded and invisible in the midst of an intense
darkness. He could hear on the quiet deck soft
footfalls ; the breathing of some man lounging on
the doorstep ; the low creak of swaying masts ; or
the calm voice of the watch-officer reverberating
aloft, hard and loud, amongst the unstirring sail?
9
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130 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
He listened with avidity, taking a rest in the atten-
tive perception of the slightest sound from the
fatiguing wanderings of his sleeplessness. He was
cheered by the rattling of blocks, reassured by the
stir and murmur of the watch, soothed by the slow
yawn of some sleepy and weary seaman, settling
himself deliberately for a snooze on the planks.
Life seemed an indestructible thing. It went on
in darkness, in sunshine, in sleep; tireless, it
hovered affectionately round the imposture of his
ready death. It was bright, like the twisted flare
of lightning, and more full of surprises than the
dark night. It made him safe, and the calm of its
overpowering darkness was as precious as its rest-
less and dangerous light.
But in the . evening, in the dog-watches, and
even far into the first night-watch, a knot of men
could always be seen congregated before Jimmy's
cabin. They leaned on each side of the door,
peacefully interested and with crossed legs; they
stood astride the doorstep discoursing, or sat in
silent couples on his sea-chest ; while against the
bulwark along the spare topmast, three or four in
a row stared meditatively, with their simple faces
lit up by the projected glare of Jimmy's lamp.
The little place, repainted white, had, in the night,
the brilliance of a silver shrine where a black idol,
reclining stiffly under a blanket, blinked its weary
eyes and received our homage. Donkin officiated.
He had the air of a demonstrator showing a phe-
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 131
nomenon, a manifestation bizarre, simple, and
meritorious, that, to the beholders, should be a
profound and an everlasting lesson. "Just look
at 'im, 'ee knows what 's what — never fear ! " he
exclaimed now and then, flourishing a hand hard
and fleshless like the claw of a snipe. Jimmy, on
his back, smiled with reserve and without moving
a limb. He affected the languor of extreme weak-
ness, so as to make it manifest to us that our delay
in hauling him out from his horrible confinement,
and then that night spent on the poop among our
selfish neglect of his needs, had " done for him."
He rather liked to talk about it, and of course we
were always interested. He spoke spasmodically,
in fast rushes with long pauses between, as a tipsy
man walks. ..." Cook had just given me a
pannikin of hot coffee. • • . Slapped it down
there, on my chest, — banged the door to. . . •
I felt a heavy roll coming ; tried to save my coffee,
burnt my fingers . . . and fell out of my bunk.
. . . She went over so quick. . . . Water came
in through the ventilator. ... I couldn't move
the door • . . dark as ia grave . . . tried to scram-
ble up into the upper berth. . . . Rats ... a rat
bit my finger as I got up. ... I could hear him
swimming below me. ... I thought you would
never come. ... I thought you were all gone
overboard ... of course. . . . Could hear noth-
ing but the wind. . . . Then you came ... to look
for the corpse, I suppose. A little more and • • •''
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/32 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
" Man ! But ye made a rare lot of noise in
here," observed Archie, thoughtfully.
'' You chaps kicked up such a confounded row
above. . . . Enough to scare any one. ... I
did n't know what you were up to. . . . Bash in
the blamed planks ... my head. . . . Just what
a silly, scary gang of fools would do. . . . Not
much good to me anyhow. . . . Just as well . . .
drown. ... Pah ! "
He groaned, snapped his big white teeth, and
gazed with scorn. Belfast lifted a pair of dolorous
eyes, with a broken-hearted smile, clenched his
fists stealthily ; blue-eyed Archie caressed his red
whiskers with a hesitating hand ; the boatswain at
the door stared a moment, and brusquely went
away with a loud guffaw. Wamibo dreamed. . . .
Donkin felt all over his sterile chin for the few
rare hairs, and said triumphantly, with a sidelong
glance at Jimmy : " Look at 'im ! Wish I was
'arf has 'ealthy has 'e his — I do." He jerked a
short thumb over his shoulder towards the after end
of the ship. " That 's the bloomin* way to do
'em ! " he yelped, with forced heartiness. Jimmy
said : " Don't be a dam' fool," in a pleasant voice.
Knowles, rubbing his shoulder against the doorpost,
remarked shrewdly : " We can't all go an' be took
sick — it would be mutiny." — " Mutiny — gawn ! "
jeered Donkin, " there 's no bloomin' law against
bein' sick." — " There 's six weeks' hard for re-
foosing dooty," argued Knowles. " I mind I once
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 133
seed in Cardiff the crew of an overloaded ship —
leastways she were n't overloaded, only a fatherly
old gentleman with a white beard and an umbreller
came along the quay and talked to the hands.
Said as how it was crool hard to be drownded in
winter just for the sake of a few pounds more for
the owner — he said. Nearly cried over them —
he did ; and he had a square mainsail coat, and a
gaff-topsail hat too — all proper. So they chaps,
they said they would n't go to be drownded in win-
ter — depending upon that 'ere Plimsoll man to
see 'em through the court. They thought to have
a bloomin' lark and two or three days' spree. And
the beak giv' 'em six weeks — coss the ship warn't
overloaded. Anyways they made it out in court
that she was n't. There was n't one overloaded
ship in Penarth Dock at all. 'Pears that old coon
he was only on pay and allowance from some kind
people, under orders to look for overloaded ships,
and he could n't see no further than the length of
his umbreller. Some of us in the boarding-house,
where I live when I 'm looking for a ship in Car-
diff, stood by to duck that old weeping spunger
in the dock. We kept a good look out, too —
but he topped his boom directly he was outside
the court. . . . Yes. They got six weeks'
hard. . . ."
They listened, full of curiosity, nodding in the
pauses their rough pensive faces. Donkin opened
his mouth once or twice, but restrained himself
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134 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
Jimmy lay still with open eyes and not at all inter-
ested. A seaman emitted the opinion that after a
verdict of atrocious partiality " the bloomin' beaks
go an' drink at the skipper's expense." Others
assented. It was clear, of course. Donkin said :
" Well, six weeks hain't much trouble. You sleep
hall night in, reg'lar, in chokey. Do it hon my
'ead." — " You are used to it, ainch'ee, Donkin ? "
asked somebody. Jimmy condescended to laugh.
It cheered up every one wonderfully. Knowles,
with surprising mental agility, shifted his ground.
" If we all went sick what would become of the
ship ? eh ? " He posed the problem and grinned
all round. — "Let 'er go to 'ell," sneered Donkin.
" Damn 'er. She ain't yourn." — " What ? Just
let her drift ? " insisted Knowles in a tone of unbe-
lief. — " Aye ! Drift, an' be blowed," affirmed
Donkin with fine recklessness. The other did not
see it — meditated. — " The stores would run out,"
he muttered, " and . . . never get anywhere . . .
and what about pay-day ? " he added with greater
assurance. — "Jack likes a good pay-day," ex-
claimed a listener on the doorstep. " Aye, because
then the girls put one arm round his neck an'
t' other in his pocket, an' call him ducky. Don't
they. Jack ? " — " Jack, you 're a terror with the
gals." — " He takes three of 'em in tow to once,
like one of 'em Watkinses two-funnel tugs wad-
dling away with three schooners behind," — " Jack,
you 're a lame scamp." — " Jack, tell us about that
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 135
one with a blue eye and a black eye. Do." —
" There 's plenty of girls with one black eye along
the Highway by . . ." — "No, that's a speshul
one — come, Jack." Donkin looked severe and
disgusted ; Jimmy very bored ; a grey-haired sea-
dog shook his head slightly, smiling at the bowl
of his pipe, discreetly amused. Knowles turned
about bewildered ; stammered first at one, then at
another. — " No ! . . . I never ! . . . can't talk
sensible sense midst you. . . . Always on the kid."
He retired bashfully — muttering and pleased.
They laughed hooting in the crude light, around
Jimmy's bed, where on a white pillow his hollowed
black face moved to and fro restlessly. A pufF of
wind came, made the flame of the lamp leap, and
outside, high up, the sails fluttered, while near by
the block of the foresheet struck a ringing blow on
the iron bulwark. A voice far off cried, " Helm
up ! " another, more faint, answered, '' Hard-up,
sir ! " They became silent — waited expectantly.
The grey-haired seaman knocked his pipe on the
doorstep and stood up. The ship leaned over
gently and the sea seemed to wake up, murmuring
drowsily. " Here 's a little wind com in'," said
some one very low. Jimmy turned over slowly to
face the breeze. The voice in the night cried loud
and commanding : " Haul the spanker out." The
group before the door vanished out of the light.
They could be heard tramping aft while they
repeated with varied intonations : " Spanker out ! "
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136 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
..." Out spanker, sir ! " Donkin remained alone
with Jimmy. There was a silence. Jimmy
opened and shut his lips several times as if swal-
lowing draughts of fresher air; Donkin moved
the toes of his bare feet and looked at them
thoughtfully.
" Ain't you going to give them a hand with the
sail ? " asked Jimmy.
" No. Hif six ov 'em hain't 'nough beef to
set that blamed, rotten spanker, they hain't fit to
live," answered Donkin in a bored, far-away voice,
as though he had been talking from the bottom of
a hole. Jimmy considered the conical, fowl-like
profile with a queer kind of interest ; he was lean-
ing out of his bunk with the calculating, uncer-
fain expression of a man who reflects how best
to lay hold of some strange creature that looks as
though it could sting or bite. But he said only :
'* The mate will miss you — and there will be
ructions."
Donkin got up to go. " I will do for 'im hon
some dark night, see hif I don't," he said over his
shoulder.
Jimmy went on quickly : " You 're like a poll-
parrot, like a screechin' poll-parrot." Donkin
stopped and cocked his head attentively on one
side. His big ears stood out, transparent and
veined, resembling the thin wings of a bat.
"Yuss?" he said, with his back towards
Jimmy,
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 137
" Yes ! Chatter out all you know — like . . .
like a dirty white cockatoo."
Donkin waited. He could hear the other's
breathing, long and slow ; the breathing of a man
with a hundredweight or so on the breastbone.
Then he asked calmly : " What do I know ? "
" What ? . . . What I tell you ... not much.
What do you want ... to talk about my health
so . . ."
" Hit 's a bloomin' him posy shun. A bloomin ,
stinking first-class himposyshun — but hit don't
tyke me hin. Not hit."
Jimmy kept still. Donkin put his hands in his
pockets, and in one slouching stride came up to
the bunk.
" I talk — what 's the hodds. They hain't men
here — sheep they hare. A driven lot of sheep. I
'old you hup. . . . Vy not ? You 're well hofF."
"I am ... I don't say anything about
that. . . ."
" Well. Let 'em see hit. Let 'em larn what
a man can do. I ham a man. I know hall about
yer. . . ." Jimmy threw himself further away
on the pillow ; the other stretched out his skinny
neck, jerked his bird face down at him as though
pecking at the eyes. " I ham a man. I 've seen
the hinside of every chokey in the Colonies
rather 'n give hup my rights. . . ."
*' You are a jail-prop," said Jimmy, weakly.
'' I ham ... an' proud of it too. You ! You
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138 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
*ave n't the bloomin' nerve — so you hinventyd
this 'ere dodge. . . ." He paused j then with
marked afterthought accentuated slowly : " Yer
ain't sick — hare yer ? "
" No," said Jimmy, firmly. " Been out of sorts
now and again this year," he mumbled with a
sudden drop in his voice.
Donkin closed one eye, amicable and confiden-
tial. He whispered : " Ye 'ave done hit afore
— aven'tchee ? " Jimmy smiled — then as if
unable to hold back he let himself go : ^^ Last
ship — yes. I was out of sorts on the passage.
See? It was easy. They paid me off in Cal-
cutta, and the skipper made no bones about it
either. ... I got my money all right. Laid up
fifty-eight days ! The fools ! O Lord ! The
fools ! Paid right off." He laughed spasmodi-
cally. Donkin chummed, giggling. Then Jimmy
coughed violently. "I am as well as ever," he
said, as soon as he could draw breath.
Donkin made a derisive gesture. " In course,"
he said profoundly, *' hany one can see that." —
" They don't," said Jimmy, gasping like a fish.
— " They would swallow any yarn," affirmed
Donkin. — " Don't you let on too much," admon-
ished Jimmy, in an exhausted voice. — *' Your
little gyme? Eh?" commented Donkin, jovi-
ally. Then with sudden disgust: "Yer hall for
yerself, s' long has ye 're right. . . ."
So charged with egoism James Wait pulled the
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 139
blanket up to his chin and lay still for a while.
His heavy lips protruded in an everlasting black
pout. " Why are you so hot on making trouble ? "
he asked without much interest.
" 'Cos hit 's a bloomin' shayme. We hare put
hon . . . bad food, bad pay ... I want hus to
kick up a bloomin' row; a blamed 'owling row
that would make 'em remember ! Knocking peo'
pie habout . . . brain hus . . . hindeed ! Ain't
we men ? " His altruistic indignation blazed.
Then he said calmly : " I 've been a-hairing ov yer
clothes." — " All right," said Jimmy, languidly,
"bring them in." — "Giv' us the key of your
chest, I'll put 'em away for yer," said Donkin,
with friendly eagerness. — '* Bring 'em in, I will
put them away myself," answered James Wait, with
severity. Donkin looked down, muttering. . . .
" What d' you say ? What d' you say ? " inquired
Wait, anxiously. — " Nothink. The night 's dry ?
let 'em 'ang out till the morning," said Donkin, in
a strangely trembling voice, as though restraining
laughter or rage. Jimmy seemed satisfied. " Give
me a little water for the night in my mug — there,"
he said. Donkin took a stride over the doorstep.
" Git it yerself," he replied in a surly tone.
" You can do it, hunless you hare sick." — " Of
course I can do it," said Wait, " only ..." — " Well,
then, do it," said Donkin, viciously, " if yer can
look hafter yer clothes, yer can look hafter yerself,"
He went on deck without a look back.
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140 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
Jimmy reached out for the mug. Not a drop.
He put it back gently with a faint sigh — and
closed his eyes. He thought: That lunatic Bel-
fast will bring me some water if I ask. Fool. I
am very thirsty. ... It was very hot in the cabin,
and it seemed to turn slowly round, detach itself
from the ship, and swing out smoothly into a
luminous, arid space where a black sun shone,
spinning very fast. A place without any water !
No water ! A policeman with the face of Don-
kin drank a glass of beer by the side of an
empty well, and flew away flapping vigorously. A
ship whose mastheads protruded through the sky
and could not be seen, was discharging grain, and
the wind whirled the dry husks in spirals along the
quay of a dock with no water in it. He whirled
along with the husks — very tired and light. All
his inside was gone. He felt lighter than the
husks — and more dry. He expanded his hollow
chest. The air streamed in, carrying away in its
rush a lot of strange things that resembled houses,
trees, people, lamp-posts. . . . No more ! There
was no more air — and he had not finished draw-
ing his long breath. But he was in jail ! They
were locking him up. A door slammed. They
turned the key twice, flung a bucket of water over
him — Phoo ! What for ?
He opened his eyes, thinking the fall had been
very heavy for an empty man — empty — empty.
He was in his cabin. Ah ! All right ! His face
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 141
was streaming with perspiration, his arms heavier
than lead. He saw the cook standing in the door-
way, a brass key in one hand and a bright tin hook-
pot in the other.
"I have been locking up for the night," said
the cook, beaming benevolently. "Eight-bells
just gone. I brought you a pot of cold tea for
your night's drinking, Jimmy. I sweetened it with
some white cabin sugar, too. Well — it won't
break the ship."
He came in, hung the pot on the edge of the
bunk, asked perfunctorily, " How goes it ? " and
sat down on the box. — " H'm," grunted Wait,
inhospitably. The cook wiped his face with a
dirty cotton rag, which, afterwards, he tied round
his neck. "That's how them firemen do in
steamboats," he said serenely, and much pleased
with himself. " My work is as heavy as theirs —
I'm thinking — and longer hours. Did you ever
see them down the stokehold ? Like fiends they
look — firing — firing — firing — down there."
He pointed his forefinger at the deck. Some
gloomy thought darkened his shining face, fleeting,
like the shadow of a travelling cloud over the light
of a peaceful sea. The relieved watch tramped
noisily forward, passing in a body across the sheen
of the doorway. Some one cried, " Good night ! "
Belfast stopped for a moment and looked in at
Jimmy, quivering and speechless as if with repressed
emotion. He gave the cook a glance charged with
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142 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
dismal foreboding, and vanished. The cook cleared
his throat. Jimmy stared upwards and kept as
still as a man in hiding.
The night was clear, with a gentle, breeze. The
ship heeled over a little, slipping quietly over a
sombre sea towards the inaccessible and festal
splendour of a black horizon pierced by points of
flickering fire. Above the mastheads the resplen-
dent curve of the Milky Way spanned the sky
like a triumphal arch of eternal light, thrown
over the dark pathway of the earth. On the fore-
castle head a man whistled with loud precision a
lively jig, while another could be heard faintly,
shuffling and stamping in time. There came from
forward a confused murmur of voices, laughter —
snatches of song. The cook shook his head,
glanced obliquely at Jimmy, and began to mutter,
" Aye. Dance and sing. That 's all they think
of. I am surprised the Providence don't get tired.
. . . They forget the day that 's sure to come . . .
but you . . ."
Jimmy drank a gulp of tea, hurriedly, as though
he had stolen it, and shrank under his blanket, edg-
ing away towards the bulkhead. The cook got
up, closed the door, then sat down again and said
distinctly, —
" Whenever I poke my galley fire I think of you
chaps — swearing, stealing, lying, and worse — as
if there was no such thing as another world. . . .
Not bad fellows, either, in a way," he conceded
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 143
slowly; then, after a pause of regretful musing,
he went on in a resigned tone : " Well, well.
They will have a hot time of it. Hot ! Did I
say ? The furnaces of one of them White Star
boats ain't nothing to it."
He kept very quiet for awhile. There was a
great stir in his brain ; an addled vision of bright
outlines ; an exciting row of rousing songs and
groans of pain. He suffered, enjoyed, admired,
approved. He was delighted, frightened, exalted
— like on that evening (the only time in his life —
twenty-seven years ago; he loved to recall the
number of years) when as a young man he had —
through keeping bad company — become intoxi-
cated in an East-end music-hall. A tide of sudden
feeling swept him clean out of his body. He
soared. He contemplated the secret of the here-
after. It commended itself to him. It was ex-
cellent ; he loved it, himself, all hands, and Jimmy,
His heart overflowed with tenderness, with com-
prehension, with the desire to meddle, with anxiety
for the soul of that black man, with the pride
of possessed eternity, with the feeling of might.
Snatch him up in his arms and pitch him right
into the middle of salvation ... the black soul
— blacker — body — rot — Devil. No ! Talk
— strength — Samson. . . . There was a great
din as of cymbals in his ears ; he flashed through
an ecstatic jumble of shining faces, lilies, prayer-
books, unearthly joy, white shirts, gold harps,
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144 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
black coats, wings. He saw flowing garments,
clean shaved faces, a sea of light — a lake of pitch.
There were sweet scents, a smell of sulphur —
red tongues of flame licking a white mist. An
awesome voice thundered ! . • . It lasted three
seconds.
" Jimmy ! " he cried in an inspired tone. Then
he hesitated. A spark of human pity glimmered
yet through the infernal fog of his supreme
conceit.
" What ? " said James Wait, unwillingly.
There was a silence. He turned his head just
the least bit, and stole a cautious glance. The
cook's lips moved inaudibly; his face was rapt,
his eyes turned up. He seemed to be mentally
imploring deck beams, the brass hook of the lamp,
two cockroaches.
" Look here," said Wait, " I want to go to
sleep. I think I could."
" This is no time for sleep ! " exclaimed the
cook, very loud. He had prayerfully divested
himself of the last vestige of his humanity. He
was a voice — a fleshless and sublime thing, as
on that memorable night — the night when he
went over the sea to make coffee for perishing
sinners. " This is no time for sleeping," he re-
peated with exaltation. " / can't sleep."
" Don't care damn," said Wait, with factitious
energy. "I can. Go an' turn in."
'' Swear ... in the very jaws ! ... in the
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 145
very jaws ! Don't you see the fire . . • don't
you feel it ? Blind, chockfuU of sin ! I can see
it for you. I can't bear it. I hear the call to
save you. Night and day. Jimmy, let me save
you ! " The words of entreaty and menace broke
out of him in a roaring torrent. The cockroaches
ran away. Jimmy perspired, wriggling stealthily
under his blanket. The cook yelled. . . .
" Your days are numbered ! . . ." — " Get out
of this," boomed Wait, courageously. — " Pray
with me ! . . ." — " I won't ! . . ." The little
cabin was as hot as an oven. It contained an
immensity of fear and pain, an atmosphere of
shrieks and moans ; prayers vociferated like blas-
phemies and whispered curses. Outside, the men
called by Charley, who informed them in tones of
delight that there was a row going on in Jimmy's
place, pushed before the closed door, too startled
to open it. All hands were there. The watch
below had jumped out on deck in their shirts,
as after a collision. Men running up, asked :
" What is it ? " Others said : " Listen ! " The
muffled screaming went on : " On your knees !
On your knees ! " — " Shut up ! " — " Never !
You are delivered into my hands. . . . Your life
has been saved. . . . Purpose. • . . Mercy. . . .
Repent." — " You are a crazy fool ! . . ." —
"Account of you . . • you . . . Never sleep
in this world, if I ..." — " Leave off." —
No ! . . . stokehold . . • only think ! . . ."
u
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146 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
Then an impassioned screeching babble where
words pattered like hail. '' No ! " shouted
Jim. — '' Yes. You are ! . . . No help. . . .
Everybody says so." — '' You lie ! " — ''I see you
dying this minyt . . . before my eyes . . . as
good as dead now." — " Help ! " shouted Jimmy,
piercingly. — '' Not in this valley . . . look up-
wards," hbwled the other. — " Go away ! Murder !
Help ! " clamoured Jimmy. His voice broke.
There were moanings, low mutters, a few sobs.
" What 's the matter now ? " said a seldom-
heard voice. " Fall back, men ! Fall back
there ! " repeated Mr. Creighton sternly, pushing
through. — " Here *s the old man," whispered
some. — "The cook*s in there sir," exclaimed
several, backing away. The door clattered open ;
a broad stream of light darted out on wondering
faces ; a warm whifF of vitiated air passed. The
two mates towered head and shoulders above the
spare, grey-headed man who stood revealed be-
tween them, in shabby clothes, stiff and angular,
like a small carved figure, and with a thin, com-
posed face. The cook got up from his knees.
Jimmy sat high in the bunk, clasping his drawn-
up legs. The tassel of the blue nightcap almost
imperceptibly trembled over his knees. They
gazed astonished at his long, curved back, while
the white corner of one eye gleamed blindly at
them. He was afraid to turn his head, he shrank
within himself; and there was an aspect astound*
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 147
ing and animal-like in the perfection of his ex-
pectant immobility. A thing of instinct — the
unthinking stillness of a scared brute.
"What are you doing here?" asked Mr.
Baker, sharply. — "My duty," said the cook,
with ardour. — - " Your • . . what ? " began the
mate. Captain Allistoun touched his arm lightly.
"I know his caper," he said in a low voice.
" Come out of that, Podmore," he ordered, aloud.
The cook wrung his hands, shook his fists
above his head, and his arms dropped as if too
heavy. For a moment he stood distracted and
speechless. "Never," he stammered, "I . . .
he . . . I." — " What — do — you — say ? " pro-
nounced Captain Allistoun. "Come out at
once — or . . ." — "I am going," said the cook,
with a hasty and sombre resignation. He strode
over the doorstep firmly — hesitated — made a
few steps. They looked at him in silence. " I
make you responsible ! " he cried desperately, turn-
ing half round. " That man is dying. I make
you . . . " — " You there yet ? " called the
master, in a threatening tone. — "No, sir," he
exclaimed hurriedly, in a startled voice. The
boatswain led him away by the arm; some one
laughed; Jimmy lifted his head for a stealthy
glance, and in one unexpected leap sprang out of
his bunk; Mr. Baker made a clever catch and
felt him very limp in his arms ; the group at the
door grunted with surprise. — " He lies," gasped
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148 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
Wait, " he talked about black devils — he is a
devil — a white devil — I am all right." He stif-
fened himself, and Mr. Baker, experimentally, let
him go. He staggered a pace or two; Captain
AUistoun watched him with a quiet and penetrat-
ing gaze ; Belfast ran to his support. He did not
appear to be aware of any one near him ; he stood
silent for a moment, battling single-handed with a
legion of nameless terrors, amidst the eager looks
of excited men who watched him far off, utterly
alone in the impenetrable solitude of his fear.
Heavy breathings stirred the darkness. The sea
gurgled through the scuppers as the ship heeled
over to a short pufF of wind.
" Keep him away from me," said James Wait
at last in his fine baritone voice, and leaning with
all his weight on Belfast's neck. " I Ve been
better this last week ... I am well ... I was
going back to duty . . . to-morrow — now if you
like — Captain." Belfast hitched his shoulders to
keep him upright.
" No," said the master, looking at him fixedly.
Under Jimmy's armpit Belfast's red face moved
uneasily. A row of eyes gleaming stared on the
edge of light. They pushed one another with
elbows, turned their heads, whispered. Wait let
his chin fall on his breast, and, with lowered eye-
lids, looked round in a suspicious manner.
" Why not ? " cried a voice from the shadows 5
** the man 's all right, sir."
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 149
" I am all right," said Wait, with eagerness.
" Been sick . . . better . . . turn-to now." He
sighed. — " Howly Mother ! " exclaimed Belfast,
with a heave of the shoulders, " stand up, Jimmy.
— "Keep away from me then," said Wait, giving
Belfast a petulant push, and reeling fetched against
the door-post. His cheekbones glistened as though
they had been varnished. He snatched off his
night-cap, wiped his perspiring face with it, flung
it on the deck, " I am coming out," he said,
without stirring.
"No. You don't," said the master, curtly.
Bare feet shuflled, disapproving voices mur-
mured all round; he went on as if he had not
heard : " You have been skulking nearly all the
passage and now you want to come out. You
think you are near enough to the pay-table now.
Smell the shore, hey ? "
" I 've been sick . . . now — better," mum^
bled Wait, glaring in the light. — " You have been
shamming sick," retorted Captain AUistoun, with
severity. " Why ..." he hesitated for less than
half a second. "Why, anybody can see that.
There's nothing the matter with you, but you
choose to lie-up to please yourself — and now
you shall lie-up to please me. Mr. Baker, my
orders are that this man is not to be allowed on
deck to the end of the passage."
There were exclamations of surprise, triumph,
indignation. The dark group of men swung
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150 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
across the light. " What for ? " — " Told you
so . . ." — "Bloomin' shame . . ." — "We've
got to say something habout that," screeched Don-
kin from the rear, — " Never mind, Jim — we will
see you righted," cried several together. An
elderly seaman stepped to the front. "D'ye
mean to say, sir," he asked ominously, "that a
sick chap ain't allowed to get well in this 'ere
hooker ? " Behind him Donkin whispered excit-
edly amongst a staring crowd where no one spared
him a glance, but Captain AUistoun shook a fore-
finger at the angry, bronzed face of the speaker.
"You — you hold your tongue," he said warn-
ingly. — " This is n't the way," clamoured two or
three younger men. — "Hare we bloomin' ma-
sheens ? " inquired Donkin in a piercing tone, and
dived under the elbows of the front rank. — " Soon
show 'im we ain't boys. ..." — " The man 's a
man if he is black." — " We ain't goin' to work
this bloomin' ship shorthanded if Snowball's all
right. . . ."—"He says he is." — "Well then,
strike, boys, strike ! " — " That 's the bloomin'
ticket." Captain AUistoun said sharply to the
second mate : " Keep quiet, Mr. Creighton," and
stood composed in the tumult, listening with pro-
found attention to mixed growls and screeches, to
every exclamation and every curse of the sudden
outbreak. Somebody slammed the cabin door to
with a kick ; the darkness full of menacing mut-
ters leaped with a short clatter over the streak of
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 151
light, and the men became gesticulating shadows
that growled, hissed, laughed excitedly. Mr.
Baker whispered : '* Get away from them, sir."
The big shape of Mr. Creighton hovered silently
about the slight figure of the master. — "We have
been hymposed upon all this voyage," said a grufF
voice, "but this 'ere fancy takes the cake." —
" That man is a shipmate." — " Are we bloomin'
kids ? " — " The port watch will refuse duty."
Charley, carried away by his feelings, whistled
shrilly, then yelped : " Giv' us our Jimmy ! " This
seemed to cause a variation in the disturbance.
There was a fresh burst of squabbling uproar. A
lot of quarrels were set going at once. — " Yes."
_ « No." — " Never been sick." — " Go for them
to once." — "Shut yer mouth, youngster, — this
is men's work." — " Is it ? " muttered Captain
AUistoun, bitterly. Mr. Baker grunted : " Ough !
They 're gone silly. They 've been simmering for
the last month." — "I did notice," said the master.
— " They have started a row amongst themselves
now," said Mr. Creighton with disdain; "better get
aft, sir. We will soothe them." — "Keep your
temper, Creighton," said the master. And the three
men began to move slowly towards the cabin door.
In the shadows of the fore rigging a dark mass
stamped, eddied, advanced, retreated. There were
words of reproach, encouragement, unbelief, exe-
cration. The elder seamen, bewildered and angry,
growled their determination to go through with
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152 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
something or other; but the younger school oi
advanced thought exposed their and Jimmy's
wrongs with confused shouts, arguing amongst
themselves. They clustered round that moribund
carcass, the fit emblem of their aspirations, and
encouraging one another they swayed, they tramped
on one spot, shouting that they would not be " put
upon." Inside the cabin, Belfast, helping Jimmy
into his bunk, twitched all over in his desire not to
miss all the row, and with difficulty restrained the
tears of his facile emotion. James Wait, flat on
his back under the blanket, gasped complaints. —
" We will back you up, never fear," assured Bel-
fast, busy about his feet. — "I '11 come out to-
morrow morning — take my chance — you fellows
must — " mumbled Wait, "I come out to-morrow
— skipper or no skipper." He lifted one arm
with great difficulty, passed the hand over his face.
" Don't you let that cook . . ." he breathed out.
— " No, no," said Belfast, turning his back on the
bunk, " I will put a head on him if he comes near
you." — "I will smash his mug ! " exclaimed
faintly Wait, enraged and weak; "I don't want
to kill a man, but . . ." He panted fast like a
dog after a run in sunshine. Some one just out-
side the door shouted, " He 's as fit as any ov us ! "
Belfast put his hand on the door-handle. ^-
" Here ! " called James Wait, hurriedly, and in
such a clear voice that the other spun round with a
start. James Wait, stretched out black and death*
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 153
like in the dazzling light, turned his head on the
pillow. His eyes stared at Belfast, appealing and
impudent. " I am rather weak from lying-up so
long," he said distinctly. Belfast nodded. " Get-
ting quite well now," insisted Wait. — " Yes. I
noticed you getting better this . . . last month,"
said Belfast, looking down. " Hallo ! What 's
this ? " he shouted, and ran out.
He was flattened directly against the side of
the house by two men who lurched against him.
A lot of disputes seemed to be going on all round.
He got clear and saw three indistinct figures
standing alone in the fainter darkness under the
arched foot of the mainsail, that rose above theii
heads like a convex wall of a high edifice. Donkin
hissed : " Go for them ... it 's dark ! " The
crowd took a short run aft in a body — then there
was a check. Donkin, agile and thin, flitted past
with his right arm going like a windmill — and
then stood still suddenly with his arm pointing
rigidly above his head. The hurtling flight of
some small heavy object was heard ; it passed be-
tween the heads of the two mates, bounded heavily
along the deck, struck the after hatch with a pon-
derous and deadened blow. The bulky shape of
Mr. Baker grew distinct. " Come to your senses,
men ! " he cried, advancing at the arrested crowd. —
" Come back, Mr. Baker ! " called the master's
quiet voice. He obeyed unwillingly. There was
a minute of silence, then a deafening hubbub arose.
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154 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
Above it Archie was heard energetically : *' If ye
do oot ageen I wull tell ! " There were shouts.
"Don't!"— "Drop it!" — "We ain't that
kind ! " The black cluster of human forms reeled
against the bulwark, back again towards the house.
Shadowy figures could be seen tottering, falling,
leaping up. Ringbolts rang under stumbling
feet. " Drop it ! " — " Let me ! " — " No ! " —
" Curse you . . . hah ! " Then sounds as of
some one's face being slapped ; a piece of iron fell
on the deck ; a short scuffle, and some one's
shadowy body scuttled rapidly across the main
hatch before the shadow of a kick. A raging
voice sobbed out a torrent of filthy language . . .
" Throwing things — good God ! " grunted Mr.
Baker, in dismay. — "That was meant for me,"
said the master, quietly ; " I felt the wind of that
thing ; what was it — an iron belaying-pin ? " —
" By Jove ! " muttered Mr. Creighton. The con-
fused voices of men talking amidships mingled
with the wash of the sea, ascended between the
silent and distended sails — seemed to flow away
into the night, further than the horizon, higher
than the sky. The stars burned steadily over the
inclined mastheads. Trails of light lay on the
water, broke before the advancing hull, and, after
she had passed, trembled for a long time as if in
awe of the murmuring sea.
Meantime the helmsman, anxious to know what
the row was about, had let go the wheel, and, bent
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 155
double, ran with long stealthy footsteps to the break
of the poop. The " Narcissus," left to herself,
came up gently to the wind without any one being
aware of it. She gave a slight roll, and the sleep-
ing sails woke suddenly, coming all together with a
mighty flap against the masts, then filled again one
after another in a quick succession of loud reports
that ran down the lofty spars, till the collapsed
mainsail flew out last with a violent jerk. The
ship trembled from trucks to keel ; the sails kept
on rattling like a discharge of musketry ; the chain
sheets and loose shackles jingled aloft in a thin
peal; the gin blocks groaned. It was as if an
invisible hand had given the ship an angry shake
to recall the men that peopled her decks to the
sense of reality, vigilance, and duty. — '^ Helm
up ! " cried the master, sharply. « Run aft, Mr.
Creighton, and see what that fool there is up to." —
" Flatten in the head sheets. Stand by the weather
fore-braces," growled Mr. Baker. Startled men
ran swiftly, repeating the orders. The watch be-
low, abandoned all at once by the watch on deck,
drifted towards the forecastle in twos and threes,
arguing noisily as they went. "Wc shall see to-
morrow ! " cried a loud voice, as if to cover with
a menacing hint an inglorious retreat. And then
only orders were heard, the falling of heavy coils
of rope, the rattling of blocks. Singleton's white
head flitted here and there in the night, high above
the deck, like the ghost of a bird. ^ Going off,
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156 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
sir ! •* shouted Mr. Creighton from aft. — ** Full
again." — « All right ..." — " Ease off the head
sheets. That will do the braces. Coil the ropes,"
grunted Mr. Baker, bustling about.
Gradually the tramping noises, the confused
sound of voices, died out, and the officers, coming
together on the poop, discussed the events. Mr.
Baker was bewildered and grunted ; Mr. Creighton
was calmly furious; but Captain AUistoun was
composed and thoughtful. He listened to Mr.
Baker's growling argumentation, to Creighton's
interjected and severe remarks, while looking down
on the deck he weighed in his hand the iron belay-
ing-pin — that a moment ago had just missed his
head — as if it had been the only tangible fact of
the whole transaction. He was one of those com-
manders who speak little, seem to hear nothing,
look at no one — and know everything, hear every
whisper, see every fleeting shadow of their ship's
life. His two big officers towered above his lean,
short figure ; they talked over his head ; they were
dismayed, surprised, and angry, while between them
the little quiet man seemed to have found his taci-
turn serenity in the profound depths of a larger
experience. Lights were burning in the forecastle ;
now and then a loud gust of babbling chatter came
from forward, swept over the decks, and became
faint, as if the unconscious ship, gliding gently
through the great peace of the sea, had left behind
and for ever the foolish noise of turbulent mankind
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 157
But it was renewed again and again. Gesticulating
arms, profiles of heads with open mouths appeared
for a moment in the illuminated squares of door-
ways ; black fists darted — withdrew. ..." Yes.
It was most damnable to have such an unprovoked
row sprung on one," assented the master. ... A
tumult of yells rose in the light, abruptly ceased. . . .
He did n't think there would be any further trouble
just then. ... A bell was struck aft, another,
forward, answered in a deeper tone, and the clamour
of ringing metal spread round the ship in a circle
of wide vibrations that ebbed away into the im-
measurable night of an empty sea. . . . Did n't he
know them ! Did n't he ! In past years. Better
men, too. Real men to stand by one in a tight
place. Worse than devils too sometimes — down-
right, homed devils. Pah ! This — nothing. A
miss as good as a mile. . . • The wheel was being
relieved in the usual way. — " Full and by," said,
very loud, the man going ofF. — '' Full and by,"
repeated the other, catching hold of the spokes. —
"This head wind is my trouble," exclaimed the
master, stamping his foot in sudden anger ; " head
wind ! all the rest is nothing." He was calm again
in a moment. " Keep them on the move to-night,
gentlemen 5 just to let them feel we 've got hold
all the time — quietly, you know. Mind you keep
your hands off them, Creighton. To-morrow I
will talk to them like a Dutch Uncle. A crazy
trowd of tinkers ! Yes. tinkers ! I could count
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158 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
the real sailors amongst them on the fingers of one
hand. Nothing will do but a row — if — you —
please." He paused. " Did you think I had gone
wrong there, Mr. Baker ? " He tapped his fore-
head, laughed short. " When I saw him standing
there, three parts dead and so scared — black
amongst that gaping lot — no grit to face what 's
coming to us all — the notion came to me all at
once, before I could think. Sorry for him — like
you would be for a sick brute. If ever creature
was in a mortal funk to die ! . . • I thought I
would let him go out in his own way. Kind of
impulse. It never came into my head, those
fools. . . . H'm ! Stand to it now — of course."
He stuck the belaying-pin in his pocket, seemed
ashamed of himself, then sharply : " If you see
Podmore at his tricks again tell him I will have
him put under the pump. Had to do it once be-
fore. The fellow breaks out like that now and
then. Good cook, tho'." He walked away quickly,
came back to the companion. The two mates
followed him through the starlight with amazed
eyes. He went down three steps, and changing
his tone, spoke with his head near the deck : '^ I
shan't turn in to-night, in case of anything ; just
call out if . . . Did you see the eyes of that sick
nigger, Mr. Baker ? I fancied he begged me for
something. What? Past all help. One lone
black beggar amongst the lot of us, and he seemed
to look through me into the very hell. Fancy,
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 159
this wretched Podmore ! Well, let him die in
peace. I am master here after all. Say what I
like. Let him be. He might have been half a
man once. . . . Keep a good look-out." He
disappeared down below, leaving his mates facing
one another, and more impressed than if they had
seen a stone image shed a miraculous tear of com-
passion over the incertitudes of life and death. . . .
In the blue mist spreading from twisted threads
that stood upright in the bowls of pipes, the fore-
castle appeared as vast as a hall. Between the
beams a heavy cloud stagnated ; and the lamps
surrounded by halos burned each at the core of a
purple glow in two lifeless flames without rays.
Wreaths drifted in denser wisps. Men sprawled
about on the deck, sat in negligent poses, or,
bending a knee, drooped with one shoulder
against a bulkhead. Lips moved, eyes flashed,
waving arms made sudden eddies in the smoke.
The murmur of voices seemed to pile itself higher
and higher as if unable to run out quick enough
through the narrow doors. The watch below in
their shirts, and striding on long white legs, resem-
bled raving somnambulists; while now and then
one of the watch on deck would rush in, looking
strangely over-dressed, listen a moment, fling a
rapid sentence into the noise and run out again ;
but a few remained near the door, fascinated, and
with one ear turned to the deck. " Stick to-
gether, boys," roared Davies. Belfast tried to make
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i6o THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
himself heard. Knowles grinned in a slow, dazet
way. A short fellow with a thick clipped beard
kept on yelling periodically : " Who 's afeard ?
Who 's afeard ? " Another one jumped up, ex-
cited, with blazing eyes, sent out a string of un-
attached curses and sat down quietly. Two men
discussed familiarly, striking one another's breast
in turn, to clinch arguments. Three others, with
their heads in a bunch, spoke all together with a
confidential air, and at the top of their voices.
It was a stormy chaos of speech where intelligible
fragments, tossing, struck the ear. One could
hear : " In the last ship " — '^ Who cares ? Try
it on any one of us if " — " Knock under " —
" Not a hand's turn " — " He says he is all right "
— " I always thought " — " Never mind. . . ."
Donkin, crouching all in a heap against the bow-
sprit, hunched his shoulder-blades as high as his
ears, and, hanging a peaked nose, resembled a sick
vulture with rufiled plumes. Belfast, straddling
his legs, had a face red with yelling, and, with
arms thrown up, figured a Maltese cross. The
two Scandinavians, in a corner, had the dumb-
founded and distracted aspect of men gazing at
a cataclysm. And, beyond the light. Singleton
stood in the smoke, monumental, indistinct, with
his head touching the beam ; like a statue of heroic
size in the gloom of a crypt.
He stepped forward, impassive and big. The
noise subsided like a broken wave; but Belfast
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA i6i
cried once more with uplifted arms: "The man
is dying, I tell ye ! " then sat down suddenly on
the hatch and took his head between his hands.
Ail looked at Singleton, gazing upwards from the
deck, staring out of dark corners, or turning their
heads with curious glances. They were expec-
tant and appeased, as if that old man, who looked
at no one, had possessed the secret of their uneasy
indignations and desires, a sharper vision, a clearer
knowledge. And indeed standing there amongst
them, he had the uninterested appearance of one
who had seen multitudes of ships, had listened
many times to voices such as theirs, had already
seen all that could happen on the wide seas.
They heard his voice rumble in his broad chest
as though the words had been rolling towards
them out of a rugged past. " What do you want
to do ? " he asked. No one answered. Only
Knowles muttered, "Aye, aye," and somebody
said low : " It 's a bloomin' shame." He waited,
made a contemptuous gesture. "I have seen
rows aboard ship before some of you were born,"
he said slowly, " for something or nothing ; but
never for such a thing." — " The man is dying, I
tell ye," repeated Belfast woefully, sitting at Sin-
gleton's feet. — " And a black fellow, too," went
on the old seaman. " I have seen them die like
flies." He stopped, thoughtful, as if trying to
recollect gruesome things, details of horrors, heca-
tombs of niggers. They looked at him fascinated.
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i62 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
He was old enough to remember slavers, blood)!
mutinies, pirates perhaps ; who could tell through
what violences and terrors he had lived ! What
would he say ? He said : " You can't help him ;
die he must." He made another pause. His
moustache and beard stirred. He chewed words,
mumbled behind tangled white hairs; incom-
prehensible and exciting, like an oracle behind
a veil. ..." Stop ashore — sick. — Instead —
bringing all this head wind. Afraid. The sea
will have her own, — Die in sight of land. Always
so. They know it — long passage — more days,
more dollars. — You keep quiet. — What do you
want ? Can't help him." He seemed to wake
up from a dream. " You can't help yourselves,"
he said austerely. " Skipper 's no fool. He has
something in his mind. Look out — I say ! I
know 'em ! " With eyes fixed in front he turned
his head from right to left, from left to right, as
if inspecting a long row of astute skippers. — " He
said 'e would brain me ! " cried Donkin in a
heartrending tone. Singleton peered downwards
with puzzled attention, as though he couldn't
find him, '' Damn you ! " he said vaguely,
giving it up. He radiated unspeakable wisdom,
hard unconcern, the chilling 'air of resignation.
Round him all the listeners felt themselves some-
how completely enlightened by their disappoint-
ment, and, mute, they lolled about with the careless
case of men who can discern perfectly the irreme-
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 163
diable aspect of their existence. He, profound
and unconscious, waved his arm once, and strode
out on deck without another word.
Belfast was lost in a round-eyed meditation
One or two vaulted heavily into upper berths, and,
once there, sighed ; others dived head first inside
lower bunks — swift, and turning round instantly
upon themselves, like animals going into lairs.
The grating of a knife scraping burnt clay was
heard. Knowles grinned no more. Davies said,
in a tone of ardent conviction : " Then our
skipper 's looney." Archie muttered : " My faith !
we have n't heard the last of it yet ! " Four bells
were struck. " Half our watch below is gone ! "
cried Knowles in alarm, then reflected. " Well,
two hours' sleep is something towards a rest," he
observed consolingly. Some already pretended to
slumber ; and Charley, sound asleep, suddenly said
a few slurred words in an arbitrary, blank voice.
" This blamed boy has worrums ! " commented
Knowles from under a blanket, and in a learned
manner. Belfast got up and approached Archie's
berth. " We pulled him out," he whispered
sadly. — "What?" said the other, with sleep)
discontent. — " And now we will have to chuck
him overboard," went on Belfast, whose lowei
lip trembled. — " Chuck what ? " asked Archie. —
" Poor Jimmy," breathed out Belfast. — " He be
blowed ! " said Archie, with untruthful brutality,
and sat up in his bunk. " It 's all through him.
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i64 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
If it had n't been for me, there would have been
murder on board this ship ! " — " 'T ain't his
fault, is it ? " argued Belfast, in a murmur; " I 've
put him to bed . . . an' he ain't no heavier than
an empty beef-cask," he added, with tears in his
eyes. Archie looked at him steadily, then turned
his nose to the ship's side with determination.
Belfast wandered about, as though he had lost his
way in the dim forecastle, and nearly fell over
Donkin. He contemplated him from on high for
awhile. " Ain't ye going to turn in ? " he asked.
Donkin looked up hopelessly. " That black-
hearted Scotch son of a thief kicked me ! " he
whispered from the floor, in a tone of utter desola-
tion. — " And a good job, too ! " said Belfast, still
very depressed. "You were as near hanging as
damn-it to-night, sonny. Don't you play any of
your murthering games around my Jimmy ! You
have n't pulled him out. You just mind ! 'Cos
if I start to kick you " — he brightened up a bit
— *' if I start to kick you, it will be Yankee fash-
ion — to break something!" He tapped lightly
with his knuckles the top of the bowed head.
" You moind, me bhoy ! " he concluded cheerily.
Donkin let it pass. " Will they split on me ? "
he asked with pained anxiety. — " Who — split ? "
hissed Belfast, coming back a step. " I would
split your nose this minyt if I hadn't Jimmy to
look after! Who d' ye think we are ? " Donkin
rose and watched Belfast's back lurch through the
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 165
doorway. On all sides invisible men slept, breath-
ing calmly. He seemed to draw courage and fury
from the peace around him. Venomous and thin-
&ced, he glared from the ample misfit of borrowed
clothes as if looking for something he could smash.
His heart leaped wildly in his narrow chest. They
slept ! He wanted to wring necks, gouge eyes,
spit on faces. He shook a dirty pair of meagre
fists at the smoking lights. " Ye 're no men ! "
he cried, in a deadened tone. No one moved.
*' Yer 'avcn't the pluck of a mouse! '* His voice
rose to a husky screech. Wamibo darted out
a dishevelled head, and looked at him wildly.
" Ye 're sweepings ov ships ! I 'ope you will hall
rot before you die ! " Wamibo blinked, uncompre-
hending but interested. Donkin sat down heavily ;
he blew with force through quivering nostrils, he
ground and snapped his teeth, and, with the chin
pressed hard against the breast, he seemed busy
gnawing his way through it, as if to get at the
heart within. . . .
In the morning the ship, beginning another day
of her wandering life, had an aspect of sumptuous
freshness, like the spring-time of the earth. The
washed decks glistened in a long clear stretch ; the
oblique sunlight struck the yellow brasses in daz-
zling splashes, darted over the polished rods in lines
of gold, and the single drops of salt water forgotten
here and there along the rail were as limpid as
drops of dew, and sparkled more than scattere-j
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i66 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
diamonds. The sails slept, hushed by a gentle
breeze. The sun, rising lonely and splendid in the
blue sky, saw a solitary ship gliding close-hauled
on the blue sea.
The men pressed three deep abreast of the
mainmast and opposite the cabin-door. They shuf-
fled, pushed, had an irresolute mien and stolid
faces. At every slight movement Knowles lurched
heavily on his short leg. Donkin glided behind
backs, restless and anxious, like a man looking for
an ambush. Captain Allistoun came out suddenly.
He walked to and fro before the front. He was
grey, slight, alert, shabby in the sunshine, and as
hard as adamant. He had his right hand in the
side-pocket of his jacket, and also something heavy
in there that made folds all down that side. One
of the seamen cleared his throat ominously. " I
have n't till now found fault with you men," said
the master, stopping short. He faced them with
his worn, steely gaze, that by an universal illusion
looked straight into every individual pair of the
twenty pairs of eyes before his face. At his back
Mr. Baker, gloomy and bull-necked, grunttd low ;
Mr. Creighton, fresh as paint, had rosy cheeks and
a ready, resolute bearing. " And I don't now,"
continued the master ; " but I am here to drive
this ship and keep every man-jack aboard of her
up to the mark. If you knew your work as well
as I do mine, there would be no trouble. You 've
been braying in the dark about ' See to-morrov»
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 167
morning ! ' Well, you see me now. What do
you want ? " He waited, stepping quickly to and
fro, giving them searching glances. What did
they want ? They shifted from foot to foot, they
balanced their bodies; some, pushing back their
caps, scratched their heads. What did they want ?
Jimmy was forgotten ; no one thought of him,
alone forward in his cabin, fighting great shadows,
clinging to brazen lies, chuckling painfully over his
transparent deceptions. No, not Jimmy ; he was
more forgotten than if he had been dead. They
wanted great things. And suddenly all the simple
words they knew seemed to be lost for ever in
the immensity of their vague and burning desire.
They knew what they wanted, but they could not
find anything worth saying. They stirred on one
spot, swinging, at the end of muscular arms, big
tarry hands with crooked fingers. A murmur died
out. " What is it — food ? " asked the master,
" you know the stores had been spoiled off the
Cape." — " We know that, sir," said a bearded
shell-back in the front rank. — " Work too hard —
eh ? Too much for your strength ? " he asked
again. There was an offended silence. — " We
don't want to go shorthanded, sir," began at last
Davies, in a wavering voice, " and this 'ere black
..." — " Enough ! " cried the master. He stood
scanning them for a moment, then walking a few
steps this way and that began to storm at them
coldly, in gusts violent and cutting like the gales of
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i68 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
those icy seas that had known his youth. " Tell
you what 's the matter ? Too big for your boots.
Think yourselves damn good men. Know half
your work. Do half your duty. Think it too
much. If you did ten times as much it would n't
be enough." — "We did our best by her, sir,"
cried some one, with shaky exasperation. — " Your
best," stormed on the master. '^ You hear a lot
on shore, don't you ? They don't tell you there
your best isn't much to boast of. I tell you
— your best is no better than bad. You can do
no more? No, I know, and say nothing. But
you stop your caper or I will stop it for you. I
am ready for you ! Stop it ! " He shook a finger
at the crowd. " As to that man," he raised his
voice very much, — " as to that man, if he puts his
nose out on deck without my leave I will clap him
in irons. There ! " The cook heard him for-
ward, ran out of the galley lifting his arms, hor-
rified, unbelieving, amazed, and ran in again.
There was a moment of profound silence during
which a bow-legged seaman, stepping aside, expec-
torated decorously into the scupper. "There is
another thing," said the master, calmly. He made
a quick stride and with a swing took an iron belay-
ing-pin out of his pocket. " This ! " His move-
ment was so unexpected and sudden that the crowd
stepped back. He gazed fixedly at their faces,
and some at once put on a surprised air as though
they had never seen a belaying-pin before. He
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 169
held it up. " This is my affair. I don't ask you
any questions, but you all know it ; it has got to
go where it came from." His eyes became angry.
The crowd stirred uneasily. They looked away
from the piece of iron, they appeared shy, they
were embarrassed and shocked as though it had
been something horrid, scandalous, or indelicate,
that in common decency should not have been
flourished like this in broad daylight. The master
watched them attentively. " Donkin," he called
out in a short, sharp tone.
Donkin dodged behind one, then behind another,
but they looked over their shoulders and moved
aside. The ranks kept on opening before him,
closing behind, till at last he appeared alone before
the master as though he had come up through the
deck. Captain Allistoun moved close to him.
They were much of a size, and at short range the
master exchanged a deadly glance with the beady
eyes. They wavered. " You know this ? " asked
the master. — "No, I don't," answered the
other, with cheeky trepidation. — " You are a cur.
Take it," ordered the master. Donkin's arms
seemed glued to his thighs ; he stood, eyes front,
as if drawn on parade. " Take it," repeated the
master, and stepped closer ; they breathed on one
another. " Take it," said Captain Allistoun again,
making a menacing gesture. Donkin tore away
one arm from his side. — '^ Vy hare yer down hon
me ? " he mumbled with effort and as if his moutb
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170 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
had been full of dough. — " If you don't . . . *•
began the master. Donkin snatched at the pin as
though his intention had been to run away with it,
and remained stock still, holding it like a candle.
" Put it back where you took it from," said Cap-
tain Allistoun, looking at him fiercely. Donkin
stepped back, opening wide eyes. " Go, you black-
guard, or I will make you," cried the master, driv-
ing him slowly backwards by a menacing advance.
He dodged, and with the dangerous iron tried to
guard his head from a threatening fist. Mr. Baker
ceased grunting for a moment. — "Good! By
Jove," murmured appreciatively Mr. Creighton, in
the tone of a connoisseur. — " Don't tech me,"
snarled Donkin, backing away. — "Then go.
Go faster." — " Don't yer 'it me. ... I will pull
yer hup afore the magistryt. ... I '11 show yer
hup." Captain Allistoun made a long stride, and
Donkin, turning his back fairly, ran off a little,
then stopped and over his shoulder showed yellow
teeth. — " Further on, fore-rigging," urged the
master, pointing with his arm. — " Hare yer goin'
to stand by and see me bullied ? " screamed Donkin
at the silent crowd that watched him. Captain
Allistoun walked at him smartly. He started off
again with a leap, dashed at the fore-rigging, rammed
the pin into its hole violently. " I will be heven
with yer yet," he screamed at the ship at large and
vanished beyond the foremast. Captain Allistoun
spun round and walked back aft with a composed
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 171
face, as though he had already forgotten the scene.
Men moved out of his way. He looked at no
one. "That will do, Mr. Baker. Send the
watch below," he said quietly. "And you men
try to walk straight for the future," he added in a
calm voice. He looked pensively for a while at
the backs of the impressed and retreating crowd.
" Breakfast, steward," he called in a tone of relief
through the cabin door. — "I did n't like to see
yoii — Ough! — give that pin to that chap, sir,"
observed Mr. Baker ; " he could have bust — Ough !
— bust your head like an eggshell with it." — " Oh !
he ! " muttered the master, absently. *^ Queer lot,"
he went on in a low voice. " I suppose it 's all
right now. Can never tell tho', nowadays, with
such a . . . Years ago; I was a young master
then — one China voyage I had a mutiny ; real
mutiny. Baker. DiflFerent men, tho'. I knew
what they wanted : they wanted to broach cargo
and get at the liquor. Very simple. . . . We
knocked them about for two days, and when they
had enough — gentle as lambs. Good crew. And
a smart trip I made." He glanced aloft at the
yards braced sharp up. " Head wind day after
day," he exclaimed bitterly. " Will we never get
a decent slant this passage ? " — " Ready, sir," said
the steward, appearing before them as if by magic
and with a stained napkin in his hand. — " Ah !
All right. Come along, Mr. Baker — it's late —
with all this nonsense."
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172 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
A HEAVY atmosphere of oppressive quietude per-
vaded the ship. In the afternoon men went
about washing clothes and hanging them out to
dry in the unprosperous breeze with the medita-
tive languor of disenchanted philosophers. Very
little was said. The problem of life seemed too
voluminous for the narrow limits of human speech,
and by common consent it was abandoned to the
great sea that had from the beginning enfolded
it in its immense grip ; to the sea that knew all,
and would in time infallibly unveil to each the
wisdom hidden in all the errors, the certitude that
lurks in doubts, the realm of safety and peace
beyond the frontiers of sorrow and fear. And in
the confused current of impotent thoughts that set
unceasingly this way and that through bodies of
men, Jimmy bobbed up upon the surface, com-
pelling attention, like a black buoy chained to the
bottom of a muddy stream. Falsehood triumphed.
It triumphed through doubt, through stupidity,
through pity, through sentimentalism. We set
ourselves to bolster it up, from compassion, from
recklessness, from a sense of fun. Jimmy's stead-
fastness to his untruthful attitude in the face of the
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 173
inevitable truth had the proportions of a colossal
enigma — of a manifestation grand and incom-
prehensible that at times inspired a wondering
awe 5 and there was also, to many, something
exquisitely droll in fooling him thus to the top of
his bent. The latent egoism of tenderness to
suffering appeared in the developing anxiety not
to see him die. His obstinate non-recognition of
the only certitude whose approach we could watch
from day to day was as disquieting as the failure
of some law of nature. He was so utterly wrong
about himself that one could not but suspect him
of having access to some source of supernatural
knowledge. He was absurd to the point of in-
spiration. He was unique, and as fascinating as
only something inhuman could be ; he seemed to
shout his denials already from beyond, the awful
border. He was becoming immaterial like an
apparition; his cheekbones rose, the forehead
slanted more ; the face was all hollows, patches of
shade; and the fleshless head resembled a disin-
terred black skull, fitted with two restless globes
of silver in the sockets of eyes. He was demoral-
ising. Through him we were becoming highly
humanised, tender, complex, excessively deca-
dent : we understood the subtlety of his fear,
sympathised with all his repulsions, shrinkings,
evasions, delusions — as though we had been
over-civilised, and rotten, and without any knowl-
edge of the meaning of life. We had the air of
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174 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
being initiated in some infamous mysteries ; we
had the profound grimaces of conspirators, ex*
changed meaning glances, significant short words.
We were inexpressibly vile and very much pleased
with ourselves. We lied to him with gravity,
with emotion, with unction, as if performing some
moral trick with a view to an eternal reward.
We made a chorus of affirmation to his wildest
assertions, as though he had been a millionaire, a
politician, or a refornier — and we a crowd of
ambitious lubbers. When we ventured to ques-
tion his statements we did it after the manner of
obsequious sycophants, to the end that his glory
should be augmented by the flattery of our dissent.
He influenced the moral tone of our world as though
he had it in his power to distribute honours,
treasures, or pain ; and he could give us nothing
but his contempt. It was immense ; it seemed to
grow gradually larger, as his body day by day
shrank a little more, while we looked. It was the
only thing about him — of him — that gave the
impression of durability and vigour. It lived
within him with an unquenchable life. It spoke
through the eternal pout of his black lips ; it
looked at us through the profound impertinence of
his large eyes, that stood far out of his head like
the eyes of crabs. We watched them intently.
Nothing else of him stirred. He seemed unwilL
ing to move, as if distrustful of his own solidity.
The slightest gesture must have disclosed to him
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 175
(it could not surely be otherwise) his bodily weak-
ness, and caused a pang of mental suffering. He
was chary of movements. He lay stretched out,
chin on blanket, in a kind of sly, cautious immo-
bility. Only his eyes roamed over faces : his eyes
disdainful, penetrating, and sad.
It was at that time that Belfast's devotion —
and also his pugnacity — secured universal respect.
He spent every moment of his spare time in
Jimmy's cabin. He tended him, talked to him ;
was as gentle as a woman, as tenderly gay as an
old philanthropist, as sentimentally careful of his
nigger as a model slave-owner. But outside he
was irritable, explosive as gunpowder, sombre,
suspicious, and never more brutal than when most
sorrowful. With him it was a tear and a blow :
a tear for Jimmy, a blow for any one who did not
seem to take a scrupulously orthodox view of
Jimmy's case. We talked about nothing else.
The two Scandinavians, even, discussed the situa-
tion — but it was impossible to know in what spirit
because they quarrelled in their own language.
Belfast suspected one of them of irreverence, and
in this incertitude thought that there was no option
but to fight them both. They became very much
terrified by his truculence, and henceforth lived
amongst us, dejected, like a pair of mutes. Wamibo
never spoke intelligibly, but he was as smileless as
an animal — seemed to know much less about it
all than the cat — and consequently was safe;
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176 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
Moreover he had belonged to the chosen band of
Jimmy's rescuers, and was above suspicion. Archie
was silent generally, but often spent an hour or so
talking to Jimmy quietly with an air of proprietor-
ship. At any time of the day and often through
the night some man could be seen sitting on
Jimmy's box. In the evening, between six and
eight, the cabin was crowded, and there was an
interested group at the door. Every one stared
at the nigger.
He basked in the warmth of our interest. His
eyes gleamed ironically, and in a weak voice he
reproached us with our cowardice. He would
say, "If you fellows had stuck out for me I would
be now on deck." We hung our heads. " Yes,
but if you think I am going to let them put me in
irons just to show you sport . . . Well, no . . c
It ruins my health, this lying-up, it does. You
don't care." We were as abashed as if it had
been true. His superb impudence carried all be-
fore it. We would not have dared to revolt. We
did n't want to, really. We wanted to keep him
alive till home — to the end of the voyage.
Singleton as usual held aloof, appearing to scorn
the insignificant events of an ended life. Once
only he came along, and unexpectedly stopped in
the doorway. He peered at Jimmy in profound
silence, as if desirous to add that black image to
the crowd of Shades that peopled his old memory.
We kept very quiet, and for a long time Singleton
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 177
stood there as though he had come by appointment
to call for some one, or to see some important event.
James Wait lay perfectly still, and apparently not
aware of the gaze scrutinising him with a steadiness
full of expectation. There was a sense of tussle
in the air. We felt the inward strain of men
watching a wrestling bout. At last Jimmy with
perceptible apprehension turned his head on the
pillow. " Good evening," he said in a conciliat-
ing tone. — " H'm," answered the old seaman,
grumpily. For a moment longer he looked at
Jimmy with severe fixity, then suddenly went
away. It was a long time before any one spoke
in the little cabin, though we all breathed more
freely as men do after an escape from some dan-
gerous situation. We all knew the old man's
ideas about Jimmy, and nobody dared to combat
them* They were unsettling, they caused pain;
and, what was worse, they might have been true
for all we knew. Only once did he condescend
to explain them fully, but the impression was
lasting. He said that Jimmy was the cause of
head winds. Mortally sick men — he maintained
— linger till the first sight of land, and then die ;
and Jimmy knew that the land would draw his life
from him. It is so in every ship. Didn't we
know it ? he asked us with austere contempt :
what did we know ? What would we doubt
next ? Jimmy's desire encouraged by us and aided
by Wa»^bc'« (he was a Finn — was n't he ? Very
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178 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
well !) and Wamibo's spells delayed the ship in the
open sea. Only lubberly fools couldn't see it.
Whoever heard of such a run of calms and head
winds ? It was n't natural , . . We could not
deny that it was strange. We felt uneasy. The
common saying, " More days, more dollars," did
not give the usual comfort because the stores were
running short. Much had been spoiled off the
Cape, and we were on half allowance of biscuit.
Peas, sugar, and tea had been finished long ago.
Salt meat was giving out. We had plenty of
coffee but very little water to make it with. We
took up another hole in our belts and went on
scraping, polishing, painting the ship from morning
to night. And soon she looked as though she had
come out of a band-box; but hunger lived on
board of her. Not dead starvation, but steady,
living hunger that stalked about the decks, slept
in the forecastle; the tormentor of waking moments,
the disturber of dreams. We looked to windward
for signs of change. Every few hours of night and
day we put her round with the hope that she would
come up on that tack at last ! She did n't. She
seemed to have forgotten the way home ; she
rushed to and fro, heading northwest, heading
east ; she ran backwards and forwards, distracted,
like a timid creature at the foot of a wall. Some-
times, as if tired to death, she would wallow lan-
guidly for a day in the smooth swell of an unruffled
sea. All up the swinging masts the sails trashed
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 179
furiously through the hot stillness of the calm.
We were weary, hungry, thirsty ; we commenced
to believe Singleton, but with unshaken fidelity
dissembled to Jimmy. We spoke to him with
jocose allusiveness, like cheerful accomplices in
a clever plot ; but we looked to the westward over
the rail with mournful eyes for a sign of hope, for
a sign of fair wind ; even if its first breath should
bring death to our reluctant Jimmy. In vain!
The universe conspired with James Wait. Light
airs from the northward sprang up again j the sky
remained clear ; and round our weariness the glitter-
ing sea, touched by the breeze, basked voluptuously
in the great sunshine, as though it had forgotten
our life and trouble.
Donkin looked out for a fair wind along with
the rest. No one knew the venom of his thoughts
now. He was silent, and appeared thinner, as if
consumed slowly by an inward rage at the injus-
tice of men and of fate. He was ignored by all and
spoke to no one, but his hate for every man looked
out through his eyes. He talked with the cook
only, having somehow persuaded the good man
that he — Donkin — was a much calumniated and
persecuted person. Together they bewailed the
immorality of the ship's company. There could
be no greater criminals than we, who by our lies
conspired to send the soul of a poor ignorant black
man to everlasting perdition. Podmore cooked
what there was to cook, remorsefully, and felt all
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i8o THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
the time that by preparing the food of such sinners
he imperilled his own salvation. As to the Captain
— he had lived with him for seven years, he said,
and would not have believed it possible that such a
man ..." Well. Well. . . . There it is. . . .
Can't get out of it. Judgment capsized all in a
minute. . . . Struck in all his pride. . . . More
(ike a sudden visitation than anything else." Don-
kin, perched sullenly on the coaMocker, swung his
legs and concurred. He paid in the coin of spuri-
ous assent for the privilege to sit in the galley ; he
was disheartened and scandalised ; he agreed with
the cook ; could find no words severe enough to
criticise our conduct; and when in the heat of
reprobation he swore at us, Podmore, who would
have liked to swear also if it had n't been for his
principles, pretended not to hear. So Don kin,
unrebuked, cursed enough for two, cadged for
matches, borrowed tobacco, loafed for hours and
very much at home before the stove. From there
he could hear us on the other side of the bulkhead,
talking to Jimmy, The cook knocked the pots
about, slammed the oven door, muttered prophecies
of damnation for all the ship's company ; and Don-
kin, who did not admit of any hereafter, except for
purposes of blasphemy, listened, concentrated and
angry, gloating fiercely over a called-up image of
infinite torment — like men gloat over the accursed
images of cruelty and revenge, of greed, and of
power. . . .
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA i8i
On clear evenings the silent ship, under the cold
sheen of the dead moon, took on the false aspect of
passionless repose resembling the winter of the
earth. Under her a long band of gold barred the
black disc of the sea. Footsteps echoed on her
quiet decks. The moonlight clung to her like a
frosted mist, and the white sails stood out in daz-
zling cones as of stainless snow. In the magnifi-
cence of the phantom rays the ship appeared pure
like a vision of ideal beauty, illusive like a tender
dream of serene peace. And nothing in her was
real, nothing was distinct and solid but the heavy
shadows that filled her decks with their unceasing
and noiseless stir; the shadows blacker than the
night and more restless than the thoughts of men.
Donkin prowled spiteful and alone amongst the
shadows, thinking that Jimmy too long delayed to
die. That evening, just before dark, land had
been reported from aloft, and the master, while
adjusting the tubes of the long glass, had observed
with quiet bitterness to Mr. Baker that, after fight-
ing our way inch by inch to the Western Islands,
there was nothing to expect now but a spell of
calm. The sky was clear and the barometer high.
The light breeze dropped with the sun, and an
enormous stillness, forerunner of a night without
wind, descended upon the heated waters of the
ocean. As long as daylight lasted, the hands col-
lected on the forecastle-head watched on the east-
ern sky the island of Flores, that rose above the
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i82 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
level expanse of the sea with irregular and broken
outlines like a sombre ruin upon a vast and de-
serted plain. It was the first land seen for nearly
four months. Charley was excited, and in the
midst of general indulgence took liberties with his
betters. Men strangely elated without knowing
why, talked in groups, and pointed with bared
arms. For the first time that voyage Jimmy's
sham existence seemed for a moment forgotten in
the face of a solid reality. We had got so far
anyhow. Belfast discoursed, quoting imaginary
examples of short homeward passages from the
Islands. " Them smart fruit schooners do it in
five days," he affirmed. " What do you want ? —
only a good little breeze." Archie maintained
that seven days was the shortest pass^e, and they
disputed amicably with insulting words. Knowles
declared he could already smell home from there,
and with a heavy list on his short leg laughed fit
to split his sides. A group of grizzled sea-dogs
looked out for a time in silence and with grim
absorbed faces. One said suddenly : " 'T ain't
far to London now." — " My first night ashore,
blamme if I have n't steak and onions for supper
. . . and a pint of bitter," said another. — "A
barrel ye mean," shouted some one. — " Ham an*
eggs three times a day. That 's the way I live ! "
cried an excited voice. There was a stir, appre-
ciative murmurs ; eyes began to shine ; jaws
champed^ short nervous laughs were heard.
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 183
Archie smiled with reserve all to himself. Single-
ton came up, gave a negligent glance, and went
down again without saying a word, indifferent, like
a man who had seen Flores an incalculable number
of times. The night travelling from the East
blotted out of the limpid sky the purple stain of
the high land, ^ Dead calm," said somebody,
quietly. The murmur of lively talk suddenly
wavered, died out; the clusters broke up; men
began to drift away one by one, descending the
ladders slowly and with serious faces as if sobered
by that reminder of their dependence upon the
invisible. And when the big yellow moon as-
cended gently above the sharp rim of the clear
horizon it found the ship wrapped up in a breath-
less silence ; a fearless ship that seemed to sleep
profoundly, dreamlessly, on the bosom of the
sleeping and terrible sea.
Donkin chafed at the peace — at the ship — at
the sea that stretching away on all sides merged
into the illimitable silence of all creation. He felt
himself pulled up sharp by unrecognised grievances.
He had been physically cowed, but his injured
dignity remained indomitable, and nothing could
heal his lacerated feelings. Here was land already
— home very soon — a bad pay-day — no clothes
— more hard work. How offensive all this was.
Land. The land that draws away life from sick
sailors. That nigger there had money — clothes
— easy times; and would not die. Land draws
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i84 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
life away . » . He felt tempted to go and see
whether it did. Perhaps already ... It would
be a bit of luck. There was money in the beggar's
chest. He stepped briskly out of the shadows into
the moonlight, and instantly his craving, hungry
face from sallow became livid. He opened the
door of the cabin and had a shock. Sure enough,
Jimmy was dead ! He moved no more than a
recumbent figure with clasped hands, carved on
the lid of a stone coffin. Donkin glared with
avidity. Then Jimmy, without stirring, blinked
his eyelids, and Donkin had another shock. Those
eyes were rather startling. He shut the door be-
hind his back with gentle care, looking intently the
while at James Wait as though he had come in
there at a great risk to tell some secrets of startling
importance. Jimmy did not move, but glanced
languidly out of the corners of his eyes. " Calm ? "
he asked. — "Yuss," said Donkin, very disap-
pointed, and sat down on the box.
Jimmy breathed with composure. He was used
to such visits at all times of night or day. Men
succeeded one another. They spoke in clear
voices, pronounced cheerful words, repeated old
jokes, listened to him ; and each, going out, seemed
to leave behind a little of his own vitality, surrender
some of his own strength, renew the assurance of
life, — the indestructible thing! He did not like
to be alone in his cabin, because, when he was
alone, it seemed to him as if he had n't been tht%<
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 185
at all. There was nothing. No pain. Not now.
Perfectly right, — but he could n't enjoy his health-
ful repose unless some one was by to sec it. This
man would do as well as anybody. Donkin
watched him stealthily. — " Soon home now," ob-
served Wait. — " Why d' yer whisper ? " asked
Donkin, with interest ; " can't yer speak hup ? "
Jimmy looked annoyed and said nothing for a
while ; then in a lifeless, unringing voice : " Why
should I shout ? You ain't deaf that I know." —
" Oh'! I can 'ear right 'nough," answered Donkin,
in a low tone, and looked down. He was think-
ing sadly of going out, when Jimmy spoke again.
" Time we did get home ... to get something
decent to eat ... I am always hungry." Don-
kin felt angry all of a sudden. "What habout
me," he hissed, " I am 'ungry too, an' got ter
work. You 'ungry ! " — " Your work won't kill
you," commented Wait, feebly ; " there 's a couple
of biscuits in the lower bunk there, — you may
have one. I can't eat them." Donkin dived in,
groped in the corner, and when he came up again
his mouth was full. He munched with ardour.
Jimmy seemed to doze with open eyes. Donkin
finished his hard bread and got up. — "You're
not going ? " asked Jimmy, staring at the ceiling.
— " No," said Donkin, impulsively, and instead of
going out leaned his back against the closed door.
He looked at James Wait, and saw him long,
lean, dried up, as though all his flesh had shrivelled
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i86 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
on his bones in the heat of a white furnace ; the
meagre fingers of one hand moved lightly upon
the edge of the bunk playing an endless tune. To
look at him was irritating and fatiguing ; he could
last like this for days; he was outrageous, — be-
longing wholly neither to death nor life, and per-
fectly invulnerable in his apparent ignorance of
both. Donkin felt tempted to enlighten him.
"What hare yer thinkin' of?" he asked surlily.
James Wait had a grimacing smile that passed
over the deathlike impassiveness of his bony face,
incredible and frightful as would, in a dream, have
been the sudden smile of a corpse.
" There is a girl," whispered Wait ..." Can-
ton Street girl — She chucked a third engineer of
a Rennie boat — for me. Cooks oysters just as I
like. . . . She says — she would chuck — any toff
— for a coloured gentleman . . . That 's me. I
am kind to wimmen," he added a shade louder.
Donkin could hardly believe his ears. He was
scandalised. " Would she ? Yer would n't be
hany good to 'er," he said with unrestrained dis-
gust. Wait was not there to hear him. He was
swaggering up the East India Dock Road ; saying
kindly, " Come along for a treat," pushing glass
swing-doors, posing with superb assurance in the
gaslight above a mahogany counter. " D' yer
think yer will hever get ashore ? " asked Donkin,
angrily. Wait came back with a start. "Ten
days," he said promptly, and returned at once to
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 187
the regions of memory that know nothing of time.
He felt untired, calm, and as if safely withdrawn
within himself beyond the reach of every grave
incertitude. There was something of the immu-
table quality of eternity in the slow moments of
his complete restfulness. He was very quiet and
easy amongst his vivid reminiscences, which he
mistook joyfully for images of an undoubted
future. He cared for no one. Donkin felt this
vaguely, like a blind man may feel in his darkness
^he fatal antagonism of all the surrounding exist-
ences, that to him shall for ever remain irrealis-
able, unseen and enviable. He had a desire to
assert his importance, to break, to crush ; to be
even with everybody for everything; to tear the
veil, unmask, expose, leave no refuge, — a perfidi-
ous desire of truthfulness ! He laughed in a mock-
ing splutter and said, —
" Ten days. Strike me blind if I hever ! . . .
You will be dead by this time to-morrow pVaps.
Ten days ! " He waited for a while. " D' ye 'ear
me ? Blamme if yer don't look dead halready."
Jimmy must have been collecting his strength,
for he said almost aloud : " You 're a stinking,
cadging liar. Every one knows you." And sitting
up, against all probability, startled his visitor hor-
ribly. But very soon Donkin recovered himself.
He blustered, —
" What ? What ? Who 's a liar ? You hare
— the crowd hare — the skipper — heverybody. I
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i88 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
hain't! Putting on hairs! Who's yer?" He
nearly choked himself with indignation. " Who 's
yer to put on hairs," he repeated, trembling.
" 'Ave one — 'ave one, says 'ee — an' cawn't heat
'em 'isself. Now I '11 'ave both. By Gawd — I
will ! Yer nobody ! "
He plunged into the lower bunk, rooted in
there and brought to light another dusty biscuit.
He held it up before Jimmy — then took a bite
defiantly.
" What now ? " he asked with feverish impu-
dence. ** Yer may take one — says yer. Why
not giv' me both ? No. I 'm a mangy dorg.
One fur a mangy dorg. I '11 tyke both. Can
yer stop me ? Try. Come on. Try."
Jimmy was clasping his legs and hiding his face
on the knees. His shirt clung to him. Every rib
was visible. His emaciated back was shaken in re-
peated jerks by the panting catches of his breath.
** Yer won't ? Yer can't ! What did I say ? "
went on Donkin, fiercely. He swallowed anothei
dry mouthful with a hasty effort. The other'?
silent helplessness, his weakness, his shrinking
attitude, exasperated him. " Ye 're done I " ht
cried. " Who 's yer to be lied to ; to be waiter
on 'and an' foot like a bloomin' hymperor. Yc;
nobody. Yer no one at all ! " he spluttered wit> .
such a ''trength of unerring conviction that it
shook him from head to foot in coming out, and
left him vibrating like a released string.
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 189
• Jimmy rallied again. He lifted his head and
turned bravely at Donkin, who saw a strange face,
an unknown face, a fantastic and grimacing mask
of despair and fury. Its lips moved rapidly ; and
hollow, moaning, whistling sounds filled the cabin
with a vague mutter full of menace, complaint, and
desolation, like the far-off murmur of a rising wind.
Wait shook his head ; rolled his eyes ; he denied,
cursed, menaced — and not a word had the
strength to pass beyond the sorrowful pout of
those black lips. It was incomprehensible and
disturbing ; a gibberish of emotions, a frantic dumb
show of speech pleading for impossible things,
threatening a shadowy vengeance. It sobered
Donkin into a scrutinising watchfulness.
"Yer can't holler. See? What did I tell
yer ? " he said slowly, after a moment of attentive
examination. The other kept on headlong and
unheard, nodding passionately, grinning with gro-
tesque and appalling flashes of big white teeth.
Donkin, as if fascinated by the dumb eloquence
and anger of that black phantom, approached,
stretching his neck out with distrustful curiosity ;
and it seemed to him suddenly that he wis look-
ing only at the shadow of a man crouching high
in the bunk on the level with his eyes. " What ?
What? " he said. He seemed to catch the shape
of some words in the continuous panting hiss.
"Y^r will tell Belfast! Will yer? Hare yer a
bloomm' kid ? " He trembled with alarm and
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I90 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
rage. "Tell yer gran ' mother ! Yer afeard !
Who 's yer ter be afeard more 'n hanyone ? "
His passionate sense of his own importance ran
away with a last remnant of caution. " Tell an'
be damned ! Tell, if yer can ! " he cried. " I 've
been treated worser 'n a dorg by your bloomin'
back-lickers. They 'as set me on, honly to turn
ag'inst me. I ham the honly man 'ere. They
clouted me, kicked me — an' yer laffed — yer
black, rotten hincumbrance, you ! You will pay
fur it. They giv' yer their grub, their water — .
yer will pay fur hit to me, by Gawd ! Who
haxed me ter 'ave a drink of water ? They put
their bloomin' rags on yer that night, an' what
did they giv' ter me — a clout on the bloomin*
mouth — blast their • . . S'elp me ! . • . Yer
will pay fur hit with yer money. Hi 'm goin' ter
'ave it in a minyt ; has soon has ye 're dead, yer
bloomin' useless fraud. That 's the man I ham.
An' ye 're a thing — a bloody thing. Yah —
you corpse ! "
He flung at Jimmy's head the biscuit he ha<
been all the time clutching hard, but it only
grazed, and striking with a loud crack the bulk-
head beyond burst like a hand-grenade into flying
pieces. James Wait, as though wounded mor-
tally, fell back on the pillow. His lips ceased to
move, and the rolling eyes became quiet and stared
upwards with an intense and steady persistence.
Donkin was surprised; he sat suddenly on the
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 191
chest, and looked down, exhausted and gloomy.
After a moment he began to mutter to himself:
" Die, you beggar — die. Somebody '11 come
in ... I wish I was drunk . . . Ten days . . .
Hoysters . . ." He looked up and spoke louder.
'' No . . • No more for yer ... no more
bloomin' gals that cook hoysters . . . Who 's
yer ? Hit 's my turn now ... I wish I was
drunk; I would soon giv' you a leg up haloft.
That 's where yer will go. Feet fust, through a
port . . . Splash ! Never see yer hany more.
Hoverboard ! Good 'nuff fur yer."
Jimmy's head moved slightly and he turned his
eyes to Donkin's face ; a gaze unbelieving, deso-
lated and appealing, of a child frightened by the
menace of being shut up alone in the dark. Don-
kin observed him from the chest with hopeful eyes ;
then without rising he tried the lid. Locked. " I
wish I was drunk," he muttered, and getting up
listened anxiously to the distant sound of footsteps
on the deck. They approached — ceased. Some
one yawned interminably just outside the door, and
the footsteps went away shuffling lazily. Donkin's
fluttering heart eased its pace, and when he looked
towards the bunk again Jimmy was staring as before
at the white beam. " 'Ow d' yer feel now ? " he
asked. — " Bad," breathed out Jimmy.
Don kin sat down patient and purposeful. Every
half hour the bells spoke to one another ringing
along the whole length of the ship. Jimmy's rcfr*
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192 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
piratlon was so rapid that it could n't be counted,
so faint that it could n't be heard. His eyes were
terrified as though he had been looking at unspeak-
able horrors ; and by his face one could see that he
was thinking of abominable things. Suddenly with
an incredibly strong and heart-breaking voice he
sobbed out, —
" Overboard ! ... I ! ... My God ! "
Donkin writhed a little on the box. He looked
unwillingly. Jimmy was mute. His two long
bony hands smoothed the blanket upwards, as
though he had wished to gather it all up under his
chin. A tear, a big solitary tear, escaped from the
corner of his eye and, without touching the hol-
low cheek, fell on the pillow. His throat rattled
faintly.
And Donkin, watching the end of that hateful
nigger, felt the anguishing grasp of a great sorrow
on his heart at the thought that he himself, som^
day, would have to go through it all — just like
this — perhaps ! His eyes became moist. " Pooi
beggar," he murmured. The night seemed to go by
in a flash; it seemed to him he could hear the irre^
mediable rush of precious minutes. How long
would this blooming afl&ir last ? Too long surely.
No luck. He could not restrain himself. He
got up and approached the bunk. Wait did not
stir. Only his eyes appeared alive and his hands
continued their smoothing movement with a hor-
rible and tireless industry. Donkin bent ovw
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 193
** Jimmy," he called low. There was no an-
swer, but the rattle stopped. " D' yer see me ? "
he asked, trembling. Jimmy's chest heaved. Don-
kin, looking away, bent his ear to Jimmy's lips,
and heard a sound like the rustle of a single dry
leaf driven along the smooth sand of a beach. It
shaped itself.
"Light ... the lamp . . . and . . • go,**
breathed out Wait.
Donkin, instinctively, glanced over his shoulder
at the blazing flame ; then, still looking away, felt
under the pillow for a key. He got it at once, and
for the next few minutes was shakily but swiftly
busy about the box. When he got up, his face —
for the first time in his life — had a pink flush —
perhaps of triumph.
He slipped the key under the pillow again,
avoiding to glance at Jimmy, who had not moved.
He turned his back squarely from the bunk, and
started to the door as though he were going to walk
a mile. At his second stride he had his nose
against it. He clutched the handle cautiously, but
at that moment he received the irresistible impres-
sion of something happening behind his back. He
spun round as though he had been tapped on the
shoulder. He was just in time to see Jimmy's eyes
blaze up and go out at once, like two lamps over-
turned together by a sweeping blow. Something
resembling a scarlet thread hung down his chin out of
the corner of his lips — and he had ceased to breathe.
13
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194 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
Donkin closed the door behind him gently but
firmly. Sleeping men, huddled under jackets, made
on the lighted deck shapeless dark mounds that had
the appearance of n^lected graves. Nothing had
been done all through the night and he had n't
been missed. He stood motionless and perfectly
astounded to find the world outside as he had left
it; there was the sea, the ship — sleeping men ;
and he wondered absurdly at it, as though he had
expected to find the men dead, familiar things gone
for ever : as though, like a wanderer returning after
many years, he had expected to see bewildering
changes. He shuddered a little in the penetrating
freshness of the air, and hugged himself forlornly.
The declining moon drooped sadly in the western
board as if withered by the cold touch of a pale dawn.
The ship slept. And the immortal sea stretched
away, immense and hazy, like the image of life, with
a glittering surface and lightless depths ; promising,
empty, inspiring — terrible. Donkin gave it a
defiant glance, and slunk ofFnoiselessly as if judged
and cast out by the august silence of its might.
Jimmy's death, after all, came as a tremendous
surprise. We did not know till then how much
faith we had put in his delusions. We had taken
his chances of life so much at his own valuation
that his death, like the death of an old belief, shook
the foundations of our society. A common bond
was gone; the strong, effective, and respectable
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 195
bond of a sentimental lie. All thav day we mooned
at our work, with suspicious looks and a disabused
air. In our hearts we thought that in the matter
of his departure Jimmy had acted in a perverse and
unfriendly manner. He did n't back us up, as a
shipmate should. In going he took away with
himself the gloomy and solemn shadow in which
our folly had posed, with humane satisfaction, as a
tender arbiter of fate. And now we saw it was no
such thing. It was just common foolishness ; a
silly and ineffectual meddling with issues of majestic
import — that is, if Podmore was right. Perhaps
he was ? Doubt survived Jimmy j and, like a
community of banded criminals disintegrated by a
touch of grace, we were profoundly scandalised
with each other. Men spoke unkindly to their
best chums. Others refused to speak at all.
Singleton only was not surprised. " Dead — is
he ? Of course," he said, pointing at the island
right abeam : for the calm still held the ship spell-
bound within sight of Flores. Dead — of course.
He was n't surprised. Here was the land, and
there, on the forehatch and waiting for the sail-
maker — there was that corpse. Cause and effect.
And for the first time that voyage, the old seaman
became quite cheery and garrulous, explaining and
illustrating from the stores of experience how, in
sickness, the sight of an island (even a very small
one) is generally more fatal than the view of a con-
tinent. But he could n't explain why.
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196 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
Jimmy was to be buried at five, and it was a
long day till then — a day of mental disquiet and
even of physical disturbance. We took no interest
in our work and, very properly, were rebuked for
it. This, in our constant state of hungry irrita-
tion, was exasperating. Donkin worked with his
brow bound in a dirty rag, and looked so ghastly
that Mr. Baker was touched with compassion at
the sight of this plucky suffering. " Ough ! You,
Donkin ! Put down your work and go lay-up this
watch. You look ill." — "Hi ham, sir — in my
'ead,'' he said in a subdued voice, and vanished
speedily. This annoyed many, and they thought
the mate " bloomin' soft to-day." Captain Allis-
toun could be seen on the poop watching the sky
cloud over from the south-west, and it soon got to
be known about the decks that the barometer had
begun to fall in the night, and that a breeze might
be expected before long. This, by a subtle asso-
ciation of ideas, led to violent quarrelling as to the
exact moment of Jimmy's death. Was it before
or after " that 'ere glass started down " ? It was
impossible to know, and it caused much contemp-
tuous growling at one another. All of a sudden
there was a great tumult forward. Pacific Knowles
and good-tempered Davies had come to blows over
it. The watch below interfered with spirit, and
for ten minutes there was a noisy scrimmage round
the hatch, where, in the balancing shade of the
sails, Jimmy's body, wrapped up in a white blanket^
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 197
was watched over by the sorrowful Belfast, who,
in his desolation, disdained the fray. When the
noise had ceased, and the passions had calmed into
surly silence, he stood up at the head of the
swathed body, and, lifting both arms on high, cried
with pained indignation : " Yqu ought to be
ashamed of yourselves ! . . ." We were,
Belfast took his bereavement very hard. He
gave proofs of unextinguishable devotion. It was
he, and no other man, who would help the sail-
maker to prepare what was left of Jimmy for a
solemn surrender to the insatiable sea. He ar-
ranged the weights carefully at the feet : two holy-
stones, an old anchor-shackle without its pin, some
broken links of a worn-out stream cable. He
arranged them this way, then that. " Bless my
soul ! you are n't afraid he will chafe his heel ? "
said the sailmaker, who hated the job. He pushed
the needle, puffing furiously, with his head in a
cloud of tobacco smoke ; he turned the flaps over,
pulled at the stitches, stretched at the canvas.
^^ Lift his shoulders . . . Pull to you a bit . . .
So — o — o. Steady." Belfast obeyed, pulled, lifted,
overcome with sorrow, dropping tears on the
tarred twine. '* Don't you drag the canvas too tau*
over his poor face. Sails," he entreated tearfully. —
" What are you fashing yourself for ? He will be
comfortable enough," assured the sailmaker, cutting
the thread after the last stitch, that came about
the middle of Jimmy's forehead. He rolled up the
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198 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
remaining canvas, put away the needles. ^ What
makes you take on so ? ** he asked. Bel&st looked
down at the long package of grey sailcloth. ^ I
pulled him out," he whispered, ^^ and he did not
want to go. If I had sat up with him last night
he would have kept alive for me . . . but some-
thing made me tired." The sailmaker took vigor-
ous draws at his pipe and mumbled : ^^ When I
. . . West India Station ... In the ' Blanche '
frigate . . . Yellow Jack . . . sewed in twenty
men a day . . . Portsmouth — Devonport men —
townies — knew their fathers, mothers — sisters —
the whole boiling of 'em. Thought nothing of it.
And these niggers like this one — you don't know
where it comes from. Got nobody. No use to
nobody. Who will miss him ? " — "I do — I
pulled him out," mourned Belfast, dismally.
On two planks nailed together, and apparently
resigned and still under the folds of the Union
Jack with a white border, James Wait, carried aft
by four men, was deposited slowly, with his feet
pointing at an open port. A swell had set in from
the westward, and following on the roll of the ship,
the red ensign, at half-mast, darted out and col-
lapsed again on the grey sky, like a tongue of
flickering fire ; Charley tolled the bell ; and at
every swing to starboard the whole vast semi-circle
of steely waters visible on that side seemed to come
up with a rush to the edge of the port, as if impa-
tient to get at our Jimmy. Every one was there
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 199
but Donkin, who was too ill to come ; the Cap-
tain and Mr. Creighton stood bareheaded on the
break of the poop; Mr. Baker, directed by the
master, who had said to him gravely : " You know
more about the prayer book than I do," came out
of the cabin door quickly and a little embarrassed.
All the caps went off. He began to read in a low
tone, and with his usual harmlessly menacing
utterance, as though he had been for the last time
reproving confidentially that dead seaman at his feet.
The men listened in scattered groups ; they leaned
on the fife rail, gazing on the deck; they held
their chins in their hands thoughtfully, or, with
crossed arms and one knee slightly bent, hung
their heads in an attitude of upright meditation.
Wamibo dreamed. Mr. Baker read on, grunting
reverently at the turn of every page. The words,
missing the unsteady hearts of men, rolled out to
wander without a home upon the heartless sea;
and James Wait, silenced for ever, lay uncritical and
passive under the hoarse murmur of despair and
hopes.
Two men made ready and waited for those
words that send so many of our brothers to their
last plunge. Mr. Baker began the passage.
" Stand by," muttered the boatswain. Mr. Baker
read out : " To the deep," and paused. The
men lifted the inboard end of the planks, the
boatswain snatched off the Union Jack, and James
Wait did not move. — " Higher," muttered the
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200 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
boatswain, angrily. All the heads were raised ;
every man stirred uneasily, but James Wait gave
no sign of going. In death and swathed up for
all eternity, he yet seemed to hang on to the ship
with the grip of an undying fear. " Higher !
Lift ! " whispered the boatswain, fiercely. — " He
won't go," stammered one of the men, shakily,
and both appeared ready to drop everything. Mr.
Baker waited, burying his face in the book, and
shuffling his feet nervously. All the men looked
profoundly disturbed ; from their midst a faint
humming noise spread out — growing louder. . . .
'' Jimmy ! " cried Belfast in a wailing tone, and
there was a second of shuddering dismay.
" Jimmy, be a man ! " he shrieked passionately.
Every mouth was wide open, not an eyelid winked.
He stared wildly, twitching all over ; he bent his
body forward like a man peering at an horror.
" Go ! " he shouted, and leaped off with his arm
thrown out. " Go, Jimmy ! — Jimmy, go ! Go ! "
His fingers touched the head of the body, and the
grey package started reluctantly to, all at once,
whizz off the lifted planks with the suddenness of
a flash of lightning. The crowd stepped forward
like one man ; a deep Ah — h — h ! came out
vibrating from the broad chests. The ship rolled
as if relieved of an unfair burden ; the sails flapped.
Belfast, supported by Archie, gasped hysterically ;
and Charley, who, anxious to see Jimmy's last
dive, leaped headlong on the rail, was too late
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 201
to see anjrthmg but the faint circle of a vanishing
ripple.
Mr. Baker, perspiring abundantly, read out the
last prayer in a deep rumour of excited men and
fluttering sails. " Amen ! " he said in an un-
steady growl, and closed the book.
'' Square the yards ! " thundered a voice above
his head. All hands gave a jump ; one or two
dropped their caps; Mr. Baker looked up sur-
prised. , The master, standing on the break of the
Doop, pdinted to the westward. " Breeze com-
ing," he said, "square the yards. Look alive,
men ! " Mr. Baker crammed the book hurriedly
into his pocket. " Forward, there — let go the
foretack ! " he hailed joyfully, bareheaded and
brisk. " Square the foreyard, you port-watch ! " —
" Fair wind — fair wind,'* muttered the men
going to the braces. — " What did I tell you ? "
mumbled old Singleton, flinging down coil after
coil with hasty energy ; " I knowed it — he 's
gone, and here it comes."
It came with the sound of a lofty and power-
ful sigh. The sails filled, the ship gathered way,
and the waking sea began to murmur sleepily of
home to the ears of men.
That night, while the ship rushed foaming to
the Northward before a freshening gale, the boat-
swain unbosomed himself to the petty oflicers*
berth: "The chap was nothing but trouble,"
he said, ^^ from the moment he cam^ Hhi»ard —
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202 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
d' ye remember — that night in Bombay? Been
Dullying all that softy crowd — cheeked the old
man — we had to go fooling all over a half-
drowned ship to save him. Dam' nigh a mutiny
all for him — and now the mate abused me like a
pickpocket for forgetting to dab a lump of grease
on them planks/' — "So I did, but you ought to
have known better, too, than to leave a nail stick-
ing up — hey, Chips ? " — '' And you ought to
have known better than to chuck all my tools over-
board for 'im, like a skeary greenhorn," retorted
the morose carpenter. " Well — he 's gone after
'em now," he added in an unforgiving tone. —
" On the China Station, I remember once, the
Admiral he says to me ... " began the sail-
maker. ^
A week afterwards the " Narcissus " entered
the chops of the Channel.
Under white wings she skimmed low over the
blue sea like a great tired bird speeding to its nest.
The clouds raced with her mast-heads ; they rose
astern enormous and white, soared to the zenith,
flew past, and falling down the wide curve of the
sky seemed to dash headlong into the sea — the
clouds swifter than the ship, more free, but without
a home. The coast to welcome her stepped out
of space into the sunshine. The lofty headlands
trod masterfully into the sea ; the wide bays smiled
in the light ; the shadows of homeless clouds ran
along the sunny plains, leaped over valleys, without
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 203
a check darted up the hills, rolled down the slopes ;
and the sunshine pursued them with patches of
running brightness. On the brows of dark cliffs
white lighthouses shone in pillars of light. The
Channel glittered like a blue mantle shot with gold
and starred by the silver of the capping seas. The
" Narcissus " rushed past the headlands and the
bays. Outward-bound vessels crossed her track,
lying over, and with their masts stripped for a
slogging fight with the hard sou'wester. And,
inshore, a string of smoking steamboats waddled,
hugging the coast, like migrating and amphibious
monsters, distrustful of the restless waves.
At night the headlands retreated, the bays ad-
vanced into one unbroken line of gloom. The
lights of the earth mingled with the lights of
heaven ; and above the tossing lanterns of a trawl-
ing fleet a great lighthouse shone steadily, such as
an enormous riding light burning above a vessel
of fabulous dimensions. Below its steady glow,
the coast, stretching away straight and black, re-
sembled the high side of an indestructible craft
riding motionless upon the immortal and unresting
sea. The dark land lay alone in the midst of
waters, like a mighty ship bestarred with vigilant
lights — a ship carrying the burden of millions of
lives — a ship freighted with dross and with jewels,
with gold and with steel. She towered up im-
mense and strong, guarding priceless traditions
and untold suffering, sheltering glorious memories
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204 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
and base forgetfulness, ignoble virtues and splendid
transgressions. A great ship ! For ages had the
ocean battered in vain her enduring sides ; she was
there when the world was vaster and darker, when
the sea was great and mysterious, and ready to
surrender the prize of fame to audacious men. A
ship mother of fleets and nations ! The great
flagship of the race ; stronger than the storms !
and anchored in the open sea.
The " Narcissus," heeling over to oflF-shore gusts,
rounded the South Foreland, passed through the
Downs, and, in tow, entered the river. Shorn of
the glory of her white wings, she wound obediently
after the tug through the maze of invisible chan-
nels. As she passed them the red-painted light-
vessels, swung at their moorings, seemed for an
instant to sail with great speed in the rush of tide,
and the next moment were left hopelessly behind.
The big buoys on the tails of banks slipped past
her sides very low, and, dropping in her wake,
tugged at their chains like fierce watch-dogs.
The reach narrowed; from both sides the land
approached the ship. She went steadily up the
river. On the riverside slopes the houses appeared
in groups — seemed to stream down the declivities
at a run to see her pass, and, checked by the mud
of the foreshore, crowded on the banks. Further
on, the tall factory chimneys appeared in insolent
bands and watched her 6:0 by, like a stragglinij
crowd of &lim odants^ svi^g;genne and uoriitbt ur<S4:i
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 205
the black plummets of smoke, cavalierly aslant.
She swept round the bends; an impure breeze
shrieked a welcome between her stripped spars;
and the land, closing in, stepped between the ship
and the sea.
A low cloud hung before her — a great opal-
escent and tremulous cloud, that seemed to rise
from the steaming brows of millions of men.
Long drifts of smoky vapours soiled it with livid
trails ; it throbbed to the beat of millions of hearts,
and from it came an immense and lamentable mur-
mur — the murmur of millions of lips praying,
cursing, sighing, jeering — the undying murmur of
folly, regret, and hope exhaled by the crowds of
the anxious earth. The " Narcissus " entered the
cloud ; the shadows deepened ; on all sides there
was the clang of iron, the sound of mighty blows,
shrieks, yells. Black barges drifted stealthily on
the murky stream. A mad jumble of begrimed
walls loomed up vaguely in the smoke, bewildering
and mournful, like a vision of disaster. The tugs,
panting furiously, backed and filled in the stream,
to hold the ship steady at the dock-gates ; from her
bows two lines went through the air whistling, and
struck at the land viciously, like a pair of snakes.
A bridge broke in two before her, as if by enchant-
ment ; big hydraulic capstans began to turn all by
themselves, as though animated by a mysterious
and unholy spell. She moved through a narrow
!ane of water between two low walls of granite,
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2o6 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
and men with check-ropes in their hands kept pace
with her, walking on the broad flagstones. A
group waited impatiently on each side of the van-
ished bridge: rough heavy men in caps; sallow-
feced men in high hats ; two bareheaded women i
ragged children, fascinated, and with wide eyes.
A cart coming at a jerky trot pulled up sharply.
One of the women screamed at the silent ship —
" Hallo, Jack ! " without looking at any one in
particular, and all hands looked at her from the
forecastle head. — ^^ Stand clear! Stand clear of
that rope ! " cried the dockmen, bending over
stone posts. The crowd murmured, stamped
where they stood. — " Let go your quarter-checks !
Let go ! " sang out a ruddy-faced old man on the
quay. The ropes splashed heavily falling in the
water, and the " Narcissus " entered the dock.
The stony shores ran away right and left in
straight lines, enclosing a sombre and rectangular
pool. Brick walls rose high above the water —
— soulless walls, staring through hundreds of win-
dows as troubled and dull as the eyes of over-fed
brutes. At their base monstrous iron cranes
crouched, with chains hanging from their long
necks, balancing cruel-looking hooks over the
decks of lifeless ships. A noise of wheels rolling
over stones, the thump of heavy things falling, the
racket of feverish winches, the grinding of strained
chains, floated on the air. Between high buildings
the dust of all the continents soared in short flights;
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 207
and a penetrating smell of perfumes and dirt, of
spices and hides, of things costly and of things
filthy, pervaded the space, made for it an atmos-
phere precious and disgusting. The " Narcissus "
came gently into her berth ; the shadows of soulless
walls fell upon her, the dust of all the continents
leaped upon her deck, and a swarm of strange men,
clambering up her sides, took possession of her in
the name of the sordid earth. She had ceased to
live.
A toff in a black coat and high hat scrambled
with agility, came up to the second mate, shook
hands, and said : " Hallo, Herbert." It was his
brother. A lady appeared suddenly. A real lady,
in a black dress and with a parasol. $he looked
extremely elegant in the midst of us, and as strange
as if she had fallen there from the sky. Mr.
Baker touched his cap to her. It was the master's
wife. And very soon the Captain, dressed very
smartly and in a white shirt, went with her over
the side. We did n't recognise him at all till,
turning on the quay, he called to Mr. Baker:
" Remember to wind up the chronometers to-
morrow morning." ,An underhand lot of seedy-
looking chaps with shifty eyes wandered in
and out of the forecastle looking for a job — they
said. — "More likely for something to steal,"
commented Knowles, cheerfully. Poor beggars.
Who cared ? Were n't we home ! But Mr.
Baker went for one of them, who had, given him
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2o8 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
some cheek, and we were delighted. Everjrthing
was delightful. — "I 've finished aft, sir," called
out Mr. Creighton. — " No water in the well, sir,"
reported for the last time the carpenter, sounding-
rod in hand. Mr. Baker glanced along the decks
at the expectant groups of men, glanced aloft at the
yards. — " Ough ! That will do, men," he grunted.
The groups broke iip. The voyage was ended.
RoUed-up beds went flying over the rail ; lashed
chests went sliding down the gangway — mighty
few of both at that. •* The rest is having a cruise
off the Cape," explained Knowles enigmatically to
a dock-loafer with whom he had struck a sudden
friendship. Men ran, calling to one another, hail-
ing utter strangers to ^^ lend a hand with the dun-
nage," then with sudden decorum approached the
mate to shake hands before going ashore. — ^ Good-
bye, sir," they repeated in various tones. Mr.
Baker grasped hard palms, grunted in a friendly
manner at every one, his eyes twinkled. — ^ Take
care of your money, Knowles. Ough ! Soon get
a nice wife if you do.*' The lame man was de-
lighted. — "Good-bye, sir," said Belfast, with
emotion, wringing the mate's hand, and looked
up with swimming eyes. " I thought I would take
'im ashore with me," he went on plaintively. Mr.
Baker did not understand, but said kindly : " Take
care of yourself, Craik," and the bereaved Belfast
went over the rail mourning and alone.
Mr. Baker in the sudden peace of the ship
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 209
moved about solitary and grunting, trying door-
handles, peering into dark places, never done — a
model chief mate ! No one waited for him ashore.
Mother dead ; father and two brothers, Yarmouth
fishermen, drowned together on the Dogger Bank ;
sister married and unfriendly. Quite a lady.
Married to the leading tailor of a little town, and
its leading politician, who did not think his sailor
brother-in-law quite respectable enough for him.
Quite a lady, quite a lady, he thought, sitting down
for a moment's rest on the quarter-hatch. Time
enough to go ashore and get a bite, and sup, and a
bed somewhere. He did n't like to part with a
ship. No one to think about then. The dark-
ness of a misty evening fell, cold and damp, upon
the deserted deck; and Mr. Baker sat smoking,
thinking of all the successive ships to whom
through many long years he had given the best of
a seaman's care. And never a command in sight.
Not once ! ** I have n't somehow the cut of a
skipper about me," he meditated placidly, while
the shipkeeper (who had taken possession of the
galley), a wizened old man with bleared eyes,
cursed him in whispers for " hanging about so."
" Now, Creighton," he pursued the unenvious
train of thought, ^^ quite a gentleman . . . swell
friends . . . will get on. Fine young fellow . . .
a little more experience." He got up and shook
himself. " I '11 be back first thing to-morrow
morning for the hatches. Don't you let them
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210 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
touch anything before I come, shipkeepcr," he
called out. Then, at last, he also went ashore, —
a model chief mate !
The men scattered by the dissolving contact of
the land came together once more in the shipping
office. " The * Narcissus ' pays off," shouted
outside a glazed door a brass-bound old fellow with
a crown, and the capitals B. T. on his cap. A
lot trooped in at once, but many were late. The
room was large, white-washed, and bare ; a counter
surmounted by a brass-wire grating fenced off a
third of the dusty space, and behind the grating a
pasty-faced clerk, with his hair parted in the middle,
had the quick, glittering ' eyes and the vivacious,
jerky movements of a caged bird. Poor Captain
Allistoun also in there, and sitting before a little
table with piles of gold and notes on it, appeared
subdued by his captivity. Another Board of Trade
bird was perching on a high stool near the door :
an old bird that did not mind the chaff of elated
sailors. The crew of the " Narcissus " broke up
into knots, pushed in the corners. They had new
shore togs, smart jackets that looked as if they
had been shaped with an axe, glossy trousers that
seemed made of crumpled sheet-iron, collarless
flannel shirts, shiny new boots. They tapped
on shoulders, button-holed one another, asked :
" Where did you sleep last night ? " whispered
gaily, slapped their thighs, stamped, with bursts of
subdued laughter. Most had clean radiant faces i
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 211
only one or two were dishevelled and sad 5 the two
young Norwegians looked tidy, meek, and alto-
gether of a promising material for the kind ladies
that patronise the Scandinavian Home. Wamibo,
still in his working clothes, dreamed, upright and
burly, in the middle of the room, and, when Archie
came in, woke up for a smile. But the wide-
awake clerk called out a name, and the paying-ofF
business began.
One by one they came up to the pay-table to
get the wages of their glorious and obscure toil.
They swept the money with care into broad palr^s,
rammed it trustfully into trousers' pockets, or,
turning their backs on the table, reckoned with
difficulty in the hollow of their stiff hands. —
" Money right ? Sign the release. There — there,"
repeated the clerk, impatiently. " How stupid
those sailors are ! " he thought. Singleton came
up, venerable — and uncertain as to daylight;
brown drops of tobacco juice maculated his white
beard ; his hands, that never hesitated in the great
light of the open sea, could hardly find the small
pile of gold in the profound darkness of the shore.
" Can't write ? " said the clerk, shocked. " Make
a mark, then." Singleton painfully sketched in a
heavy cross, blotted the page. *' What a disgust-
ing old brute ! " muttered the clerk. Somebody
opened the door for him, and the patriarchal sea-
man passed through unsteadily, without as much
as a glance at any of us.
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212 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
Archie had a pocket-book. He was chaffed.
Belfast, who looked wild, as though he had already
luifed up through a public-house or two, gave signs
of emotion and wanted to speak to the Captain
privately. The master was surprised. They
spoke through the wires, and we could hear the
Captain saying : " I Ve given it up to the Board
of Trade." — "I should 've liked to get something
of his," mumbled Belfast. — "But you can't, my
man. It's given up, locked and sealed, to the
Marine Office," expostulated the mastery and
Belfast stood back, with drooping mouth and
troubled eyes. In a pause of the business we
heard the master and the clerk talking. We
caught " James Wait — deceased — found no papers
of any kind — no relations — no trace — the Office
must hold his wages then." Donkin entered. He
seemed out of breath, was grave, full of business.
He went straight to the desk, talked with anima-
tion to the clerk, who thought him an intelligent
man. They discussed the account, dropping i&'s
against one another as if for a wager — very
friendly. Captain AUistoun paid. " I give you a
bad discharge," he said quietly. Donkin raised
his voice : " I don't want your bloomin' discharge
— keep it. I 'm goin' ter 'ave a job hashore."
He turned to us. "No more bloomin' sea fur
me," he said, aloud. All looked at him. He had
better clothes, had an easy air, appeared more at
home than any of us ; he stared with assurance,
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 213
enjoying the effect of his declaration. "Yuss.
I 'ave friends well hoff. That 's more 'n yer got.
But I ham a man. Yer shipmates for all that.
Who 's comin' fur a drink ? "
No one moved. There was a silence ; a silence
of blank faces and stony looks. He Waited a
moment, smiled bitterly, and went to the door.
There he faced round once more. " Yer won't ?
Yer bloomin' lot of yrpocrits. No ? What 'avc
I done to yer ? Did I bully yer ? Did I hurt
yer ? Did I ? . . . Yer won't drink ? . . . No !
. . . Then may yer die of thirst, hevery mother's
son of yer ! Not one of yer 'as the sperrit of a
bug. Ye 'rr the scum of the world. Work and
starve ! "
He went out, and slammed the door with such
violence that the old Board of Trade bird nearly
fell off his perch.
" He 's mad," said Archie. — " No ! No ! He 's
drunk," insisted Belfast, lurching about, and in
a maudlin tone. Captain AUistoun sat smiling
thoughtfully at the cleared pay-table.
Outside, on Tower Hill, they blinked, hesitated
clumsily, as if blinded by tl?e strange quality of the
hazy light, as if discomposed by the view of so
many men ; and they who could hear one another
in the howl of gales seemed deafened and distracted
by the dull roar of the busy earth. " To the
Black Horse ! To the Black Horse ! " cried some
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214 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
"Let us have a drink together before we part."
They crossed the road, clinging to one another.
Only Charley and Belfast wandered oiF alone. As
I came up I saw a red-faced, blowsy woman, in a
grey shawl, and with dusty, fluffy hair, fall on
Charley's neck. It was his mother. She slob-
bered over him : " Oh, my boy ! My boy ! " —
*' Leggo of me," said Charley, " leggo, mother ! "
I was passing him at the time, and over the untidy
head of the blubbering woman he gave me a
humorous smile and a glance ironic, courageous,
and profound, that seemed to put all my knowledge
of life to shame. I nodded and passed on, but
heard him say again, good-naturedly : *' If you
leggo of me this min)rt — ye shall 'ave a bob for a
drink out of my pay." In the next few steps I
came upon Belfast. He caught my arm with
tremulous enthusiasm. — "I could n't go wi' 'em,"
he stammered, indicating by a nod our noisy crowd,
that drifted slowly along the other sidewalk.
"WhenI think of Jimmy . . . Poor Jim! When
I think of him I have no heart for drink. You
were his chum, too . . . but I pulled him out . . .
did n't I ? Short wool he had. . . . Yes. And
I stole the blooming pie. . . . He wouldn't go.
... He wouldn't go for nobody." He burst
into tears. *' I never touched him — never —
never ! " he sobbed. " He went for me like . . .
like ... a lamb."
I disengaged myself gently. Belfast's crying
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 215
fits generally ended in a fight with some one, and
I was n't anxious to stand the brunt of his incon-
solable sorrow. Moreover, two bulky policemen
stood near by, looking at us with a disapproving
and incorruptible gaze. — " So long ! " I said, and
went off.
But at the corner I stopped to take my last look
at the crew of the "Narcissus." They were
swaying irresolute and noisy on the broad flag-
stones before the Mint. They were bound for
the Black Horse, where men, in fur caps, with
brutal faces and in shirt-sleeves, dispense out of
varnished barrels the illusions of strength, mirth,
happiness, the illusion of splendour and poetry of
life, to the paid-ofF crews of southern-going ships.
From afar I saw them discoursing, with jovial eyes
and clumsy gestures, while the sea of life thun-
dered into their ears ceaseless and unheeded. And
swaying about there on the white stones, sur-
rounded by the hurry and clamour of men, they
appeared to be creatures of another kind — lost,
alone, forgetful, and doomed ; they were like cast-
aways, like reckless and joyous castaways, like mad
castaways making merry in the storm and upon an
insecure ledge of a treacherous rock. The roar
of the town resembled the roar of topping breakers,
merciless and strong, with a loud voice and cruel
purpose ; but overhead the clouds broke ; a flood
of sunshine streamed down the walls of grimy
houses. The dark knot of seamen drifted in sun<-
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2i6 THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA
shine. To the left of them the trees in Tower
Gardens sighed, the stones of the Tower gleaming
seemed to stir in the play of light, as if remember-
ing suddenly all the great joys and sorrows of the
past, the fighting prototypes of these men ; press-
gangs 5 mutinous cries ; the wailing of women by
the riverside, and the shouts of men welcoming vic-
tories. The sunshine of heaven fell like a gift of
grace on the mud of the earth, on the remember-
ing and mute stones, on greed, selfishness ; on the
anxious faces of forgetful men. And to the right
of the dark group the stained front of the Mint,
cleansed by the flood of light, stood out for a
moment, dazzling and white, like a marble palace
in a fairy tale. The crew of the " Narcissus '*
drifted out of sight.
I never saw them again. The sea took some,
the steamers took others, the graveyards of the
earth will account for the rest. Singleton has no
doubt taken with him the long record of his faith-
ful work into the peaceful depths of an hospitable
sea. And Donkin, who never did a decent day's
work in his life, no doubt earns his living by dis-
coursing with filthy eloquence upon the right of
labour to live. So be it ! Let the earth and the sea
each have its own.
A gone shipmate, like any other man, is gone
for ever; and I never saw one of them again.
But at times the spring-flood of memory sets with
force up the dark River of the Nine Bends. Then
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THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA 217
on the waters of the forlorn stream drifts a ship —
a shadowy ship manned by a crew of Shades.
They pass and make a sign, in a shadowy hail.
Have n't we, together and upon the immortal sea,
wrung out a meaning from our sinful lives ? Good-
bye, brothers! You were a good crowd. As good
a crowd as ever fisted with wild cries the beating
canvas of a heavy foresail ; or tossing aloft, invis-
ible in the night, gave back yeU for yell to a westerly
gale.
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